Predictability
by Optronix Ultra
Summary: Though she's just any ordinary person, Jen was the oddball of sorts. She gets a small surprise only to find she's lost almost everything. The only thing stopping her from destroying everything is her twin, Casey; add her friend James' unusual arms and you've got an unstoppable force with a goal to find peaceofmind and to stop Jen's nasty and devastating secret.
1. The Reactor Project

**Predictability:**

**The Reactor Project**

The year is 2168; Jim and Kelly had volunteered for this procedure and were expecting to have it done sometime today at seven; it was supposed to be done on Jim, but the circumstances weren't going to allow it this time, sadly. The thing was Kelly was pregnant with a girl and was going through labor; this hadn't become apparent until it was far too late for an abortion (which Kelly absolutely hated even thinking about, let alone talk about it). The doctors had put her on a bed and were in the process of delivering the baby; when they had delivered the little bundle of joy, they let Kelly hold her daughter and see her for a bit.

The one thing a bit abnormal about this baby girl wouldn't become apparent until during her childhood (thus was a side effect of the drug that Kelly had taken not too long ago); after a while, she nodded to sleep with the baby lying on the sheets. It was about this time that the cart that carried the egg that contained the snake was brought right beside the bed and was left there for about twenty minutes, during which the egg had hatched and the five inch serpent had slithered onto the sheets upon catching the baby's scent.

It wasn't long before he was close to the girl and was in a position to bite and secure a telepathic connection with her (to destroy the connection the baby would have to be killed); nor is it very long before Casey bites Jenifer and says, "_My name's Casey; I'm not your enemy, but I'm your friend._"

The baby doesn't even know what he did, but doesn't have time to think about it whatsoever, she just knows the snake had just become her best friend ever, and she'd drop a bomb if he did get hurt (thus something extraordinary is created). It isn't long before the place is attacked and destroyed; then two people hear her crying in the ER, and they immediately wrap her up and are making a run for the north exit (the snake is in the sheets wrapped around the baby). The last thing these two siblings see is a burning building complex in the rear-view window, and something they swore to each other they weren't going to talk about for as long as they lived… even to the baby wrapped in the sheets (but boy, were they in for a surprise).

* * *

20 Years Later

* * *

It was a starry night, not exactly pitch black, but pretty well lit by the stars, and the moon, and Jen had just come across an Air-Mech factory; so she radios to Command, saying, -"Guess what I found out here in the middle of nowhere?"-. Command radios back, -"Go ahead, Spear-top, what is it?"- Jen puts her finger on the button but pauses, not exactly sure how to answer, but just when she's about to, a Spade roars overhead. Jen answers back, -"An Air-Mech factory; elimination suggestions? I was thinking an air strike, or single G-bomb using my coordinates. Command responds with a multi-missile UAV –a missile fuselage with roughly ten to twenty smaller self-propelled warheads along a center rod with a normal rocket engine at one end and a normal tipped end; the only difference is the fuselage splits in four and fans out like an umbrella– and a Gravity Bomb (one of the most destructive weapons ever created). It doesn't explode upon impact, it instead creates a small gravity warp that pulls anything within a one-hundred fifty yard radius to a point and then the small nuke that's at the center of the scrapped target goes off.

Jen just watches in happy silence, eating a bowl of popcorn over a campfire, while the bastards at the factory get their just-desserts. She then mutters, "Oh, wait…. Shit!" Jen then scrams behind an oak, just before the shockwaves hit her location. "Well, there went my lunch; at least it isn't a total loss," she says as she looks at the 300 foot wide crater in front of her. She then takes out her phone and snaps a picture of the hole her friends just made, and picks up her backpack, shoves the bowl in it and decides to head for camp. "Now, where did I put that stupid 4-wheeler?" Jen wonders, she then finds it a good twenty yards from where she parked it, (most likely due to the repercussions from the explosion). After driving for a while, Jen thinks to herself "I need a tracker for this stupid thing, given how many times it's gotten thrown around." She then just drives for a while; thinking about her childhood when things were so much easier.

"Let's see what we've got here." She then puts a blue visor over her right eye and vocally goes through and lists off what her equipment: Battle Rifle with full clip, and three hundred sixty spare rounds, a hand-held shotgun –or the equivalent of- with seventy-two five-round clips, or "discs", as they were called, and a belt of twenty grenades, five of each: normal, sticky, spikes, and fire starters. "Well, this is bound to come in handy sooner or later," Jen mutters to herself as she takes out her black and teal body suit. The armor was a light silk-like material that broke into pieces when it took enough damage (which is more than you might think); the thing is it has to be melted down to be reused after it's broken apart; the shoulder blades flex to allow the user's arms to move freely with little or no hindrance. The cool thing is the suit is as light as air; after a while Jen starts singing the lyrics to a song she used to listen to as a kid; the lyrics going like:

_I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known; don't know where it goes, but its home to me, and I walk alone._

_I walk this empty street on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams when the city sleeps and I'm the only one and I walk alone. I walk alone, I walk alone, and I walk alone. I walk a…_

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me; my shallow heart's the only thing that's beating; sometimes I wish someone out there will find me, 'til then I walk alone. I'm walking down the line that divides me somewhere in my mind on the borderline of the edge and where I walk alone._

_Read between the lines, what's messed up and everything's alright; checked my vital signs to know I'm still alive and I walk alone. I walk alone, I walk alone, and I walk alone. I walk a…_

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me; my shallow heart's the only thing that's beating; sometimes I wish someone out there will find me, 'til then I walk alone. I walk alone. I walk a…_

_I walk this empty street on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams when the city sleeps and I'm the only one and I walk a…_

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me; my shallow heart's the only thing that's beating; sometimes I wish someone out there will find me, 'til then I walk alone. I walk alone. I walk a…_

What had always plagued Jen's mind was when she was just about to get her target; it manages to get away somehow. The most elusive of these targets is the doctor who created the mysterious "Reactor Project", Dr. Carter Halfway; there have been a lot of scattered witness accounts, speculation, and some denial on this project among the Resistance. Jen, however, just wants the facts…and that's exactly what she's getting.

It started with a mission briefing in the Spec Ops room on the captain's deck of the PDR (Planetary Defense Resistance) Common Sense. Jen was to go solo and do some recon and marking of Score-jet factories for neutralization by the next attacking squads. Maybe after they eliminated these stupid factories the doctor would lose his plans for the jet and would have to start over, and if that happened it would buy the Resistance the precious time it needed to perfect and finish off its crowning project: Prometheus. This would allow each soldier to bond with an animal. The bond would be a neural connection -like an A.I. and a SPARTAN II in Halo- only it would be an ultrasonic or ultraviolet wave connection, that way a soldier could talk subconsciously to their partner and vice versa. If successful, the project would allow soldiers to penetrate deep into enemy territory, and recon areas that would have been impossible to get into without tripping a security trap; it would also mean the end of the war, and the freedom of the entire solar system; the reason being we've already colonized the worlds in this galaxy; the weird thing is that the war is only in this one part of space, not exactly intergalactical, but it's bordering dangerously close to it.

It wasn't long before Jen got back to camp and stuck her Visor on the Intel Dock just inside the door; once you docked your Visor, you had to enter a unique code to detach it; _that_ was determined by you alone. It wasn't long before the data was downloaded and processed; once downloaded, the Visor would be cleared of its information (kind of like a military debriefing), and would then be ready to snap a picture, record up to twenty minutes of video and/or audio, and whatever else seems interesting at the time. "So, how well do you think you did?" asks one of the technicians. "We'll find out _right _now," Jen replies. So the guys retrieve her stuff and like clockwork the code screen comes up, and Jen enters her pass: KmaDrCH. The almost black object that comes up in the bottom left corner no one notices, except Jen, who, surprisingly, doesn't say anything about it; instead just notes it and keeps watching. "Wow, you did a number on those guys, didn't you, Spear?" asked the second technician after they tallied the number of dead bodies (It's some kind of sick score keeping these two sides came up with a long time ago); the number was somewhere in the twenties or thirties. With a sly smile Jen just replies, "It was a good run, I'll say that much! I had fun, though, not in a sadistic way, if you know what I mean, right?" Still staring at the screen, the two guys just nod in agreement.

The Intel Dock beeps and out comes Jen's blue Visor, which she grabs and puts over her right eye, then recalibrates to show the reticle (which varies from weapon to weapon), what weapon she's currently (or not holding, which then it returns to a small lightly shaded red, blue, or occasionally, green "X", depending on what Visor color you've picked), ammo count, secondary weapon and its spare ammo, grenades, enhanced motion tracker (which shows someone even if they're still), and Waypoints (shown during missions). The Visor also shows a small vid feed when talking to another person in the same squad (if you're talking to someone outside, it only relays audio). When the reticle is red, it indicated enemies, green indicated allied forces, and blue indicated neutrals. There's also a small number just below the reticle to indicate how far (in feet, or meters, depending on your settings) the target is, which is helpful in combat situations (it also shows up in the zoom view as a small red number in the top center just below the compass, if your reticle is trained on a particular waypoint/target or person, the thing is, if you're using a scoped weapon the number is where it usually is, just below the reticle), and some weapons will let you can zoom in by using a button on the rifle if one was available (like the Battle Rifle, sniper, M6D pistol, Sun sniper, a shoulder-mounted laser cannon, or the heat-seeking dual rocket launcher). If used correctly, they're devastating for the enemy.

After all the info is downloaded and analyzed Jen states, "I think I'll go out to the firing range and see what I'm missing in terms of aim." The first techie replies, "Okay, just don't do anything stupid, or you're gonna regret it, got that?" Jen retorts, "I'm not exactly a kid any more, am I? I think that merits some freedom." With that, she picks up her BR and heads out to the range. When she finally gets to the range, she finds a few grenades, and decides to go through the simulator. "Level 1: Training. Map: has no vehicles, with an open area, close to medium range; randomize enemies, and hazards. Have twenty-two random weapon drop spots, the weapons are as follows, though random: Max Grenades, all types, BR and ammo, SMGs, three Sun guns, brute pistol ammo, four drop shields, and randomize the rest." This is what Jen used for her personal training level, and sometimes it would go up to level 5, but that reserved for the tough missions she would go on with the other guys; on some occasions she would work level 2, but she didn't have that instinctual feeling that something was coming so she just takes it easy whenever possible. All of a sudden Jen just got really angry and started shooting everything or everyone in sight. The guy that came up behind her got a shot in the head by her pistol; the next one got shot in the eye, and was withering on the ground in pain. Another unlucky person got a grenade in the stomach hiding behind cover… One guy even got shot through the mouth from ten yards away. All in all it was a clean cut in terms of how good she did. The simulator was a good way to let off some steam after a really upsetting, and most of the time, violent and often bloody event.

It was really strange when these bursts of anger would appear, because Jen never knew when they would crop up; the reason being, it seemed, she didn't know who her parents were. They were like a taunting dream in the back of her mind or a memory just out of reach. Most just assumed the fact that she didn't know who her parents were was what caused the anger spells, and it seemed to make sense to everyone else so that was the general theory. So Jen made all her BR clips magnetic, and when she wasn't using it, she ejected the clip and stuck it on the left side of the stock, once it was attached though, she had to slide it down then slip it up to refill her ammo, and she always made sure her main clip was full before restocking her rifle (she liked the large diameter rounds); the way it would work when she went through an anger spell was she would hit the eject button at the same time she would target someone, just to make sure she didn't kill them in the process, and it had become almost habitual for her, depending on the situation. In a large fire-fight though, it had its advantages; thus it was code named Jen's Kamikaze Mode. The protocol was Jen would scream out, "Get down!" Everyone would hit the ground and all hell would break loose; by the end, there would be a lot of blood, guts, and screaming. Once it was over Jen would then yell, "We're in the clear!" and everyone would get right back up; during every firefight this would happen at least once, and there was one fight it happened seven times. Let's just say it was pretty effective. The only thing against it would be no one knows when she'll go ape-shit and someone gets a broken arm, but that's already been remedied.

After she got out of the simulator and with a satisfied smile on her face, Jen mutters, "Well, that one lasted longer than I thought, but okay." Then her face completely drains of all color when she remembers what she was supposed to be doing. Yeah, it was a good run, but she didn't remember there was supposed to be a new unveiling of a new weapon today sometime around 5:00 p.m., and she had completely forgot about it; so she basically runs down and jumps on her "Mongoose" and slams the pedal down and runs down to the old barn that served as a café and stage for events such as this.

It took a good ten minutes to drive there, and a few people were irritated that Jen was a bit late, but she hadn't missed much; all it was a speech and they were just about to reveal it with someone saying, "…and it is my pleasure and privilege to reveal to you the Exosuit prototype!" It was definitely something to behold. It did have the proportions right for being humanoid, though. Now the thing was that the group that made this bot hadn't tested it, and the announcer had full knowledge of this, and with that, he said, "Now, before any of you get your hopes up, there's one thing I have to mention to you: this hasn't been fully tested. The group that made it couldn't find a willing volunteer to pilot it; so, I'm asking anyone of you to step forward and take that chance. So, who will it be?" Now this had everyone's attention, and no one was sure if they wanted to risk it, but after a little thought, Jen raised her hand and in a no-bullshit tone said, "I'll do it!" and with that everyone parted to allow her to pass to the front of the crowd and step onto the stage. The thing was, every-one there was fully aware of Jen's so-called "Kamikaze Mode", and _that_ combined with this enormous machine would be devastating, especially given how many times it happens during a firefight.

Once she got up on the stage and introduced herself, the man's face just drains of _all _color and Jen takes note of it and just stands there with a bit of a smile on her face; the man finally comes around and introduces himself as Henry Falconer, and he states, "You sure you want to give it a go?" Jen replies, "Do you see anyone else up here that wants to do this?" Mr. Falconer replies, "Good point, let's get started shall we? Just say 'Exosuit Activate!' and the pilot sphere will open up then the mech will move to a kneeling position and its hand will come down; then just get inside." Without a word Jen nods and says the phrase as instructed and, just as Henry said, the mech knelt down and its hand came down to the ground, palm up.

Once Jen is inside the pilot sphere, a ring with a rubbery disc came down on her and she guessed it was the interface suit, which was correct, it was, but the thing was you could only have on a swim suit or underwear on at best, which was the computer said as soon as the doors had closed; so Jen did so, and it came down and the suit was extremely form-fitting. "Damn, this is hard to… _get on_!" Jen exclaims as the suit forms on her. After the suit is on and the computer checks the basics in terms of body functions and it all checks out fine, the computer asks, "Do you want a demonstration?" Jen then answers yes since she has no clue what just happened. After getting her bearings on her surroundings, she finally notices she's basically blind with no way to see on the outside, and says, "How can I see outside?" The computer responds with a 360-degree screen around Jen and it shows everyone in the crowd along with the person who revealed the Exosuit. "Okay, 'this is way beyond cool'!" Jen exclaims, quoting Sonic- an old show she used to watch a long time ago.

The screen then shows a list of commands that shows how to operate the suit. It operated on a mobile trace system that tracks the body's movements and mimics them; so, in short, the suit does what the pilot does (So, yeah, the crowd has very legitimate reason to be nervous about this scenario, if you can picture it.). After thinking on something for a bit, Jen finally figures out how to operate the jetpack. The next thing she can't figure out is the weapons system, so she asks the computer, "Show me the weapon commands." On the screen to the left of the default commands is the weapons system list. After looking for a bit, she finally finds the command for a BR scaled to the mech; "Oh, yeah! I could definitely do some damage with that!" Jen explains, and then Henry turns to the crowd, "Now can everyone please go outside for the demonstration." With that everyone then files out the doors and the barn gate, with Jen just behind them in the mech.

Once everyone is outside the demo really gets underway with Jen showing them how well the machine performs basic movements. The next thing Jen shows them how she uses the mech battle rifle which is a sight to behold. After the show is done and Jen got out with her suit still on, she says, "Okay, how do I take this off?" Upon seeing her in the suit a lot of cat calls go up from a lot of the guys in the crowd; upon hearing this, Jen adds, "See? I don't like being in the spotlight of things like _that!_" Henry responds with, "Okay, just tear it off, but not here. It comes off if you run some water on it." Jen nods and heads for the rest rooms. Once in, she thinks to herself, "_Okay, got a second set of clothes, and he said to run some water on the suit and it'll come off._" So she runs water over the suit and it peels away from her like dead skin. After she cleaned the suit off herself and threw it down the drain (which is a good idea.) she came out of the rest-rooms; the first person she sees sends chills up her spine for a moment.

"Well, it's been a while hasn't it, Jen?" a guy says as he walks up to her. Jen responds, "I guess it has been a while, James." After regaining her composure she adds, "What have you been up to since training?" With a bit of a grin on his face, James says, "Oh, nothing much; it's just the usual crap. A few assassination missions here, a bit of bombing there. You know the same stuff since grad." Jen thinks on this a bit; then all of a sudden she's just about to beat him and James steps back with a "WTF did I do?" look on his face, and Jen almost immediately pulls back saying, "I guess it's not your fault then…" James then realizes he hadn't talked to the girl in over _five_ years. "Hey, I know I haven't been talking to you in a long time, and you have a right to hit me, but the thing is I just got stationed somewhere else." Jen then thinks back to military school graduation and it finally hits her that James was moved from the PDR Grand Canyon, which was where he was stationed on just after military grad. Jen then runs right into James and traps him in a hug, which is highly uncharacteristic of her normal behavior, but it made sense given the circumstances; she hadn't seen him in five long years and here he was standing in front of her like nothing had changed. James then asks in a kidding tone, "So, do you know where I'm staying tonight, or do I have to go solo and camp out on this?" Jen then gives him a "Are you _fucking_ kidding me?!" look that clearly said he was staying in her bunk that night with her (and her squad, no doubt). After figuring she wanted him to stay with her, he says, "Okay, I just need to get my stuff and when we get to the bunk I'll tell everything I can, or what you want to hear, okay?" "Okay, let's go!" an ecstatic Jen explains, dragging him toward the vehicle depot (which is where you're supposed to park by default, unless otherwise told by a commanding officer).

After James' stuff is brought into the "Can" (which is what most of the guys call the barracks), he gets himself situated on the bed beside Jen and begins to tell his story. "The ship had come under attack and we were moving like hell to counter, but since we were the ones with the plans, we, or our captain decided we were gonna 'suicide' the ship, in other words: turn it into a bomb… and we did. I was the last one out since I set the timer for seven and a half minutes. I got to the pod just in time with my load-out, a small suitcase of clothes and a picture. It was awhile until we located each other, but we had a hell of a time trying to get to one another, although we could still talk over the radio; so it wasn't too bad, I guess." He pauses, trying to think through something in his mind, which Jen then asks, "Then what happened; how did you get to your buddies?" James then gets his thoughts straight, and answers, "I was just getting to that. The thing was our pods were magnetic, so we just thought 'get close enough to magnetize, and we can then maneuver around'; so some of us (not including me) tried to dock with a bud and it worked out pretty well. The thing I like is the fact that something was apparently helping us. I don't remember what it looked like exactly, but it was long and had a stripe of diamonds down its back; that's how I saw it in the first place." Jen then thinks on this a bit, she starts to think back to when she used to have a pet snake, but had to let it go due to "No pets allowed on base" when she moved to where she is now. "_No, that can't be him! I mean, could it? It's been so long since he left… and that wasn't even his fault. I really hope he can forgive me for that._" Jen thinks to herself. "You sure it had a diamond stripe pattern down the body, Jim?"

It takes him a second to think it over, and then he responds with, "Yeah, now that I think about it, I'm sure it had a diamond stripe down the body; like I said… I'm sure it was the thing that was helping us, but I have no clue how it found us… unless it was onboard the ship with us, and decided to go solo and help the less fortunate of the crew." Jen then draws in a sharp breath, realizing exactly who it was. "_It is him! Casey, did you still try to get close to me when you knew it would be hazardous to you? You haven't changed at all after all these years then._" A chill went up Jen's spine when she started thinking about it; James took notice of it, and asked, "Was it something I said?" Jen then assaults him with a barrage of kisses, and then hugs him for the second time that day. "Did it follow you when you guys started off for another ship, or did you see it at all after that?" For a second James pauses, trying to think back to when he and the crew were trying to get to another ship, and he had taken leadership of the crew and gotten them to the closest ship there was: The Infidel. James then says, "Yeah, now that I think about it, the Diamond Snake had attached itself to my pod right on the window. When we did dock with Infidel it then went on its merry way…" Then seeing the look on Jen's face, he then quickly adds, "…it did get on the ship though. It and my pod were inside the hatch when the snake finally detached, and I could've _sworn_ it had looked at me and waved back, and that's how we ended up here."

Jen then says to him, "I guess you're wondering why I'm questioning you about the snake, right?" James then answers back, "Yes, I would like to know that. You seem… inquisitive about it; now you have to tell me why this snake is so important to you, from the looks of it; since I told you my story." Jen then takes a deep breath to calm her mind down a bit before she starts her story. "So, you know when I had a pet snake and I had to kill it because of the rule 'No pets on base', right?" James nods, thinking back to when they were inducted into the Resistance. She continues with, "Well, I let him go…" James then gives her a look that plainly says "What the hell were you thinking?!" Jen answers, "I know what you're thinking: 'Why did you let a poisonous snake out in the wild '? Well… I've known him a long time, and the thing is… people tend to stereotype a lot of things, snakes included. The thing with Casey is he has human feelings like you or me, or the guy in the bunk on top of you. Which is why I tell people: 'He's not a normal snake' he's just a bit misunderstood, but that doesn't stop him from doing what he does." James then cuts in saying, "Wait a sec, you're telling me that snake I saw was your pet Casey?" Jen nods, a smile on her face. She then continues with, "Yeah, the funny thing is I can talk with him and vice versa. I remember him telling me he could move around in space once; I thought he was kidding, but when you told me about that incident where you were trying to get close to your crew it made sense that he wasn't kidding whatsoever."

Just then she got that age old feeling in her body that she could never forget, not that she wanted to, and voice said, "_Haven't seen you for a long time, Jen. How have things been?_" Jen then says back, "_How did you find me… I mean, you got in that ship and…_" The voice then responds, "_I just followed your friend here, and here he leads me to someone I haven't seen in over ten years, but it seems nothing's changed; which is good._" Jen then turns to the entrance and right there is her long lost friend. "_Casey, you've gotten a lot longer, but you're still the same. James told me so. You helped his crew form the halo and get back to another ship; you can move around in dead space with nothing but a thought._" Casey then moves over closer to Jen and James, and says, "_That, and I used my tail and the pods' gravity to move on an intercept course to the other pods… once I found out what they were trying to do; you know full well I can intercept radio chatter as well as a real radio can listen to it, Jen._"

Jen thinks back to when she and Casey were young. They would usually try to pull some outrageous prank on Jen's foster parents when they were on their free time. "_Damn, those were good times._" Jen thinks to herself. Meanwhile James is watching with the utmost fascination with this new development in front of him. He can't understand what they're saying to each other but just by the expression on Jen's face he can kind of understand what's going on with these two. Jen then asks Casey, "_Can you sing Desert Rose to me for old time's sake, please? It's been so long since I've heard that one_." Casey then nods, and plays the song a couple of times, and then jumps -or the snakes' equivalent of- on Jen, and just lightly squeezes her all over. Jen then tells James that it's okay, that's just how Casey hugs someone. "_Okay, so what did you do while you were away, because you know how far you got then I couldn't talk to you; after that I just assumed you went on an exploratory mission to somewhere; so, how the HELL did you end up in space with James?"_

Casey then pauses, not sure how to answer. "_Casey, if you can't say it now you can always talk to me later about it._" He then responds, "_No, it's not that, it's just that the events are bit fuzzy in my mind, and I remember the pods, but I can't exactly remember how I ended up… Oh, that's right. I went looking for a good place to find some rodents to eat, and somehow I end up in a crate. You know how hard it is to contain me when I'm not in a complying mood, right? Well, these guys were trying to get me into this crate, and I was still in a state of confusion about it._" Jen then gives this some thought, then asks, "_You only incapacitated them, didn't you?" _Casey nods then continues, "_Yes, I only incapacitated them. The thing was that they still got me in that crate, and after that I don't remember what happened. When I did get out of that damn thing I found myself on a ship; I guess I was on James' ship, because I knew it was gonna blow and I could sense a ticking in the command center of the ship, so I made for the pods, and got stuck in between the capsule and the hatch doors, so I figured I might as well help these guys out, and like I said, I intercepted their radio chatter, went to the two closest pods, and pushed them together and then let the pods' gravity take over._" Jen just stares at him in absolute disbelief for a second, then asks, "_How can you function in space, you would have blown into a balloon and went 'BOOM' almost instantly._" Casey, expecting this question, then answers, "_That's what everyone thinks, but I'm not normal as you always used to tell people. The thing is I can create a gravity field to contain my body in its natural shape; thus I can move around normally, or as normally as you can move in space._" Jen just stares at him for a sec in sheer shock, thinking he's on then grabs her Visor and says to him, "_Well, how do you like it? I custom ordered it and I also ordered one for you; I had a few different sight settings set on it; just set it to how you want it. Mine's blue; yours is red._"

Jen sets the Visor on Casey's head, and then switches through the vision settings to show which ones he can use; Casey then settles for the standard vision setting (HCV/Human Color Vision). The next setting she shows him is the Motion Tracker (standard/ enhanced) setting, with Casey choosing the standard tracker, just so he can catch someone moving and tell Jen to follow them with her scope (and since she has the enhanced tracker). The third setting she shows him is the weapons setting: Top Left, Top right, Bottom Left, Bottom right; after giving it some thought, Casey picks the Top right setting for old time's sake because he loved to watch Jen tear it up in a console game called Halo that she used to play as a kid; after she's set Casey's Visor, he asks, "_Okay, so now that you've set my 'scouter' for me, what is it exactly?_" Jen then tells him about the Dragon Ball Z Namek saga. "_Oh, so I guess it's called something different then._" Jen nods at that. "_Yeah, it's called a Visor._" Casey then asks, "_Okay, so you couldn't decide on a design for personal HUDs, and so when you saw the Ginyu Force with the scouters, you decided to use that basic design; the exception being mine, because it looks like Robo-Cop's helmet? And you used Halo 3's HUD, minus the shielding meter, which in its place you put the Reach health bar._

She then answers, "_Pretty much; it's had its shining moments. Which, by the way, my Kamikaze mode has been going off more often lately, which isn't necessarily a good thing, I don't think._" Casey gives this some thought, and then responds, "_I would agree; if I'm following you correctly, Kamikaze mode just means those bursts of anger you get from time to time that you can't control. I've seen firsthand what you're capable of during that time; it's not pretty._" Jen just nods her head; then Casey, just to tease her, plays Dangerous by Akon, and man, does she hate that song! The thing is Casey does spontaneous things like this just to get her mind off of crap like her Kamikaze mode or her troubles in general, and it usually works. Meanwhile, James just sneaks out the door to give them time to get reacquainted.

Jen then explains, "Y_eah, that's the codename for it. The counter protocol I came up with works pretty well; the way it works is if it catches me off-guard I just hit the eject button on my battle rifle and the clip harmlessly hits the floor. It's something that everyone is made aware of when they come on base. The fire-fight protocol is a bit different: I'll scream 'Get down!' which signals everyone to hit the ground immediately, and if they don't hear it, they'll see it, then those guys will hit the ground and lay on their stomachs until I call out, 'All clear'; the reason being it looks like they're already dead, so I overlook them, and basically kill anyone still standing. So basically I call out; they play dead and anyone who doesn't comply is killed almost immediately.…"_

"_Okay, so you want something to eat? I'm sure you're hungry right now._" Casey just opens his mouth (with no fangs) as wide as Jen's hand width to indicate "_Yes; feed me, please._" She then lets him get on her shoulders and wrap around her torso, and then leaves for the rec hall. It takes a good ten minute walk to get there and then another five to get something to eat; meanwhile, the room goes dead quiet when everyone who sees the little spectacle stares slack jawed at Jen, and with good reason (Wouldn't you, if you saw a girl with a snake in a position to kill her just sit on her shoulders wrapped around her body, and it looked like it was _smiling_?). To Jen, it's as normal for her as food is important for survival; to everyone else, it's just not exactly _right_. Casey just looks at everyone, and memories come back from when he and Jen were young, and they would do a lot of seemingly stupid things. Jen just smiles and goes about getting a plate of food for herself and Casey while everyone else just stares in stunned silence. The only person who isn't staring in the room is James, who's sitting contentedly eating a burger with cheese. Jen spots him and goes over to sit by him and Casey unwraps himself from Jen and sits in a coil on her left with a plate of what some people would certainly call a pile of shit –which is just a pile of dead rats Jen caught earlier that day via some very useful traps, but didn't know what to do with– but Casey just calls it _lunch_.

Jen then says to James, "Don't worry, he eats it pretty fast; which is a good thing considering how fast those carcasses rot." James responds, "Well, that's a good thing; I was thinking of who it was in that mech, though. Do you know who it was?" Jen just smiles and doesn't say anything; James then gets that "Yes, it was me" vibe from her and then says, "You have got to be joking, how was it you in that suit? You could've had a Kamikaze attack!" "Well, no one else wanted to get in an untested machine and risk losing more than a limb apparently, so I stuck my hand up." Casey then looks at Jen, not quite following the line of conversation; he then asks her, "_What are you talking about?_" Jen just tells him, "_It's just a big-ass robot you can control. What James is saying is that I could've had a Kamikaze attack._" Casey's response, "…_What the hell were you thinking volunteering for that?_" Jen says back to him, "_Like I said, no one else was going to, so I thought 'Why not?' At the time it seemed like a good idea._" Casey and James then look at each other; James then asks, "I'm gonna guess that Casey was asking what possessed you to volunteer for that demonstration; if so, then I agree with him; what were you thinking?" Jen then looks at her plate, and answers, "Well, that's pretty much what he said; I just told him what I was going to tell you, but you kind of beat me to the punch, so all I'm gonna say is no one else was going to, and I was wondering what it would be like to pilot one of those Exosuits, so like I've said for the third time, I stuck my hand up." Casey then starts playing Dangerous again, and Jen gives him a "Shut the f%&# up!" look, and he then plays "_There is no Plan"_, with his head down, just to see the look on Jen's face, and for the heck of it.

Just when they're about to get up to trash the leftovers, someone runs in screaming, "They're here! Get the mobile turrets; they're _here_!" and without warning he falls to the ground with a hole in his upper back, and is dead almost immediately. "Here we go again, you bastards." Jen mutters under her breath, "James, go get your load-out, and hurry, we don't have much time; the 'bots'll be here in no time." James just nods and runs for it to the barracks to get their weapons. "_Casey, just do what you best; be an annoying pain in the ass for these guys._" Casey doesn't need telling twice about situations like this, and when it comes to fights, he's the best at neutralization simply because he possesses a venom that just knocks anyone out cold, and he knows how to use it, too. It's just sad no-one knows how he's gotten as powerful and smart as he is, or where he came from. The sad thing these guys were trying to replicate this same thing, and it usually ended in someone losing either a limb or their life, or both, unfortunately.

When Jen and Casey get outside, they're met with a force of hundreds of soldiers; all of a sudden Jen gets a feeling like someone just died. "_James, you had better get back here, quickly_!" Casey then bites the soldiers as fast as he can, trying to buy time for James to get back. Jen then hears her name called out and rushes in the direction of the cry, leaving Casey to deal with the squads. "Okay, here you go, Jen; these are yours." James says as he hands her BR and Brute pistol to her, along with the ammo for them, and Jen puts her Visor on and syncs it with Casey's and James' Visors allowing her to get a visual on what they're doing for the most part. She then asks Casey, "_Can you tell how much farther the Visors increase our connection? It'll be exceptionally helpful during combat, in case we lose visual contact with each other._" Casey then answers back, "_Yes, this is much farther than normal. Do you think you could send me a visual on where you are? I've already dealt with these sorry assholes._" Jen then sends him a video of where she is, and he immediately speeds for her position. It takes about ten minutes for Casey to get there just in time to see a bunch more soldiers swarm the joint, so he takes them out about as quickly as he did the last group.

James then remarks, "Wow, he really knows where their weak points are if he can take them down so quickly." Jen replies, "He's been doing it since he and I were little, and he knows how much to use on some-one; even when I was in trouble, being picked on or just being laughed at, he was kind of protective of me; he would hiss at the perpetrator and most of the time they backed off, but when they didn't he would bite, or at least psych them out, making them think he would bite them. It was a mystery to everyone I stayed with when I got sick, and then I would be as good as new in an hour or two, and a lot of my foster parents took me to see a doctor, but they didn't have any idea what kept me healthy; the thing was Casey's venom was like an antidote for every disease or internal injury I got, but it would put anyone else to sleep, like napping, but he always did it when we were alone. The way he did was he would wait beside me, and when everyone was gone, he would bite near the spot that was injured or infected. I never thought much of it; I just wish people would stop getting uptight about it." It takes James a second to respond, "Wow that was a mouthful; even for you."

Jen just nods; suddenly there's a huge explosion and she gets a knot in her stomach and instantly screams, "Get down!" Any and everyone who hears her cry immediately hit the ground and Casey, snaps to intercept her and wraps around her torso and just sits there until it's over, sometimes spitting on a soldier or two. It's not very long before the attacking battalion realizes it's the Kamikaze they're dealing with; so the leader orders a retreat because of said kamikaze. The battle only lasts ten minutes against Jen; two hours against the Resistance, which is just sad, but to Jen it lasts an eternity almost, and the one thing that tamed this unspeakable act was a voice in her head. Casey then squeezes only enough to snap Jen back to reality, because she basically becomes "an uber-unit in Halo Wars". "_It's all right, calm down; they ran from you within a sixth of the time the other guys ran them off, it's okay, Jen._" Casey explains upon squeezing her. It takes only a second for Jen to realize that she just ran off an entire battalion and plus some off within ten minutes. "_How bad was it? Did I get more of them than I did last time, or was it an enchilada?_" Casey and Jen had this one code word they always used right after she had just gone through an episode. Casey then responds, "_You only took out half the enchilada this time, Jen; it was a surprise attack; that's what made you snap a little more stiffly than normal, but you're okay now._" Jen then decides to head back to the barracks and rest for a bit, but that's easier said than done.

It isn't long before she gets to the barracks, but when she does she finds a note saying she needs to report to the main briefing room for a mission objective and protocol. "Damn, it's the end of a fucking defensive battle and I still haven't fully recovered from my episode. Well, okay, might as well; I don't have anything else to do." She mutters under her breath. When she turns around, at the same time slipping the BR on her back, she sees Casey slither in, and then lets him wrap around her torso as was the protocol when they needed to get somewhere quickly. It only takes them ten minutes to get there on the 4-wheeler and another five to get to the briefing room; when they do get there someone in an almost black suit says, "Okay, now everyone's here; so, let's get started with this: Everyone turn and look at the holo-table in front of you. You should see a building that looks like a round bunker that's twenty feet tall and 200 feet in diameter." One of the soldiers steps forward and asks, "Is this where we'll hit the doc's prize project, Commander?" The black suited man answers, "Yes, corporal, this is where you'll hit the hardest. You all will be split into three teams: Team A: Lt. Jen and her companion Casey, I believe?" He turns to see Jen with Casey wrapped around her torso, which was typical when they had to come in on short notice; Jen nods. "Okay, like I said Team A: Lt. Jen, Casey, Corp. James Macintyre, recruit Kevin, and Cpt. Baltimore. You will be responsible for infiltrating the compound and neutralizing the doctor's reactor. Team B: Cpt. Henry Dalton, Harry Utilitarian, Kelly Teresa, and Thomas Asher. You will be responsible for providing cover fire for Team A. Team C will be the rest of you that I didn't call out; you'll engage and neutralize the ground soldiers using medium/long ranged and power weapons. You all will rendezvous at the same coordinates away from the complex after the building is destroyed. Your extraction options are as follows: The first option is send a flare and a PX-17 Drop-ship will evacuate your team from that position. Option Two: Have a few Troop Transports and Mobile Turrets dropped and you and your team will drive to a second set of coordinates, and option one will take effect; any questions?" No one says a word, and after a minute or two the general says, "No? Then, attention!" then everyone snaps to, and respond, "Sir, yes, Sir!" The general then asks, "Everyone here knows the Kamikaze Protocol, and what happens if it's not followed, correct?"

Everyone responds, "Sir, yes, Sir!" The general then dismisses the troop and they split up and fall out to gear up for the assault. "I guess we'll be dropping in since he didn't say how we get there. That's usually what he expects when we get briefed on a mission." Jen says to James when they're in the armory. James just nods his head. "_Is something troubling you; you're never this quiet, so what's up?_" Casey asks her as Jen loads up on her supplies and armor. It takes Jen a second to respond, "_I was just thinking about when I was a kid… you were always there to calm me down; even when I was a baby you were always just a little protective of me; even when someone tried to get close to me. I just keep thinking about when you had to leave; I still regret seeing you leave. It feels like I'm a kid again around you._" Casey just gives it a little thought before jumping on Jen and giving her a hug.

James just stares at the little spectacle in front of him for a sec, and then says, "I don't think I'll ever get used to that… a snake wrapped around someone's torso." Jen just gives him a smile and hands him a BR. It only takes him a second to get his spare ammo and grenades in their respective spots and he says, "Well, come on we need to get to the drop pod chutes." On the way to the chutes Casey starts playing 'Bleed it Out', and Jen replies to him saying, "Yup, sometimes it does feel like I'm going out of my fucking mind at times; especially given how many times I've gone on possibly suicidal missions and come back with no more than a bruise." James just smiles to himself after listening to her comment. Jen catches him and, a little sarcastically, says, "What? It's true; I do, and most of the time it's usually me that has to go inside and do the bullshit no one else wants to. What does that tell you about them?" James gives her a Vita-chew and just says, "That's not saying much; I can say that." Casey then asks Jen, "_I'm going with you; I want to see how bad you can make it for them with a lot of firepower._" Jen then gives him his Visor and says, "_Okay, just get your spit ready then when we hit the ground, 'cause we'll hit the ground running._" The pod is about eight feet tall and three to four feet wide; just big enough for two weapons, spare ammo, grenades, and enough wiggle room for one person (or in this case, a person and a snake).

Jen then takes the battle rifle off her back magstrip and puts it on the strip beside the pod chair and puts her brute pistol right below it, with the ammo in the same configuration on the other side of the chair. It takes about five minutes to get the weapons and their ammo in the right spots since the grenades are supposed to be put in special removable cases for storage right below the weapon ammo. The next thing she does is get her suit on by basically forcing herself through the head and shoulder holes at the same time.

Jen then proceeds to explain to Casey how the drop pod works, saying, _"I guess it's self-explanatory where the weapons, ammo, and soldier sit, so I'll just cut to the chase: I'll sit there in the seat with you on my lap. When we do hit the ground you'll hit those two switches on the left and I'll hit those two on the right; make sense?"_ Casey nods, and she continues, _"You'll then wrap around me as you usually do when we're in a hurry then when I say so, jump off me and just have at it, and give them hell; like you did earlier. Okay on that?" _Casey then thinks it over for a second and then answers, "_Okay, when you get in I'll jump on your lap and that's until we hit the ground; then I'll hit the switches on the left and you'll hit the ones on the right. Next, I'll wrap around your torso until you give me the signal, then I'll unwrap and have at it like I did during the surprise assault today; is that how you said it?"_ Jen then says yes and she straps in, with Casey on her lap and waits for the signal to drop. Jen looks at Casey and asks, "_Are you ready for the drop? It feels like an elevator that lost its towing cable, but it's not so bad once you get used to it. It'll be fun once you do; just make sure you're expecting it, otherwise it'll take your stomach right out from under you. It did that to me the first few times I went on a drop, and I'll tell you right now: it was not fun whatsoever._" Casey just smiles and sits there on her lap contentedly. After a minute he asks, "_When was the last time you went on a drop?_" It takes Jen a second to answer this question ironically because of how many drops she's been on. It takes her a second to answer, "It was a recon mission on marking factories. I even called in a gravity bomb on one, too. Although, the guys ruined my lunch… and I don't like it when someone ruins my lunch. You of all beings should know that." Casey just nods and reminisces about those days when they were just the odd pair out of the bunch at the schools they used to go to. It always scared everyone a little that they always saw her with Casey, and they would say she was some kind of freak (but most of the time when someone did spread a rumor about her Casey would just tell her to let people think what they wanted, and it worked out pretty well considering how many people Casey had bitten).

It wasn't long before the Common Sense was over the target complex's coordinates. At the same time a computer voice says, "Prepare to drop to specified coordinates; push green button to confirm." Jen then presses said blinking button and the pod shakes and buffers a bit then the feeling that Jen mentioned earlier settles in Casey's center causing him to wrap around Jen's legs, to which she simply says, "_Told you, it takes your stomach from you._" Casey just stares at her. When they do pull out of the pod socket Casey just stares at the window in front of him in awe. "_It's certainly a sight to behold isn't it, Casey?_" Jen asks him after a second. Casey responds, "_I don't think I've ever seen the planet from this view before._" Jen then starts humming a tune she heard a long ago. "…and you think there's not enough love and no one to give it to." Casey joins in on, "_…So you say you're not gonna fight, because no one will fight for you…_"

Pretty soon they've momentarily forgotten about the situation and Casey's stomach finally settles down. After they've sang the lyrics to Robot Boy they find themselves on the ground. "_Okay, so hit on three, Casey; one…, two…, three!" _Both of them hit a synced execution of removing the pod door and Casey wraps around Jen's torso as planned and she sets off to find James' pod. It's not too long before they find the stupid thing not too far from where they dropped. Jen then puts her Visor on and assesses James' pod condition given it's still sealed. -"James, are you alright? I'm not getting your signal."—She says into the channel. It takes a minute for James to respond, -"The pod switches are busted; I can't get out of this thing! Can you burst-fire on the door, Jen? Maybe that'll get the door dislodged enough for me to kick it off and get out."- All he hears is gunfire coming from outside… and a grenade, of all things! Jen then answers, -"Okay, I'm gonna try another grenade, and when you see the pod door slip, you kick it."- She then tosses a sticky grenade on the door from about twenty yards away from the pod. All they hear is a loud boom, and metal on metal scraping. James then kicks the door and it slips a bit, so after a few good kicks the stupid door finally pops off and he emerges, unharmed by the sticky.

Jen then walks over to him with Casey still wrapped around her like a rope and states, "How the hell did you get imprisoned in that stupid thing, anyway?" James then goes a little red, and says, "Well, that's for me to know and you to find out." Jen then gives him her famous "Are you fucking kidding me?!" look and just hits him on the arm saying, "Come on, we need to find the rest of the squad, and get the hell over to the complex, blow it up, run to the coordinates and boot it." James just complies and follows her. It doesn't take long for them to find the other pods and get to the complex. They had all agreed to scare the guards with something scaly, which would imply Casey had to do it; which he complied for the most part. It went pretty smoothly considering how loud the guards were being, especially given that they were fighting an extremely agile, fighting savvy; thin, but exceptionally smart snake. The end result wasn't pretty to say the least.

It doesn't take very long for Casey to do his job, and the reason being he just bites them on their ankles; so when he does get back to the squad he tells Jen, "_I don't know how long they'll be out, so we need to get in and blow it, get out and scram before they even know we're here._" Jen nods, and basically says the same thing to the rest of the team. They all agree to storm the joint and go quietly to the bottom floor and see what they're up to inside. It doesn't take long for them to surround the entrance and hack the electronic lock on it. -"Okay, let's go and kick their asses all the way to hell and back, guys."- Jen says over their com channel.

It takes the squad about ten minutes to make it to the bottom of the complex and make it to the balcony, only to see something they had feared since rumors started floating around. Right smack in front of them is a sphere encased in what looks like three or four spinning rings, all on a different axis. Jen then spots a man beside the machine and for some reason gets a weird, but familiar feeling in her stomach; so she asks Casey, "…get my battle rifle and load it with stun rounds, like your venom, and hurry, I don't know how long I can hold it in suppression." Casey then taps James on the shoulder, and sends him a typed message saying, "Can you reload Jen's battle rifle with stun rounds, and quickly, before she goes into an episode?" James nods and doesn't say a word as he takes Jen's battle rifle and reloads it with a clip of just a few stun rounds. "Thanks, James." Jen says as she takes aim and steadies herself on the railing. James just smiles to himself. Jen then takes a deep breath, steadies herself on the railing; targets the man and fires.

The nasty little secret they were hiding was that the reactor was about to be finished, but since the man responsible for entering the codes to stop the overload process had been effectively knocked unconscious it was only a matter of time. The monitor had an infrared sensor that, if it was broken before the codes were entered, would sound a silent alarm… and that's exactly what happened. It wasn't even five minutes and the guards had already stormed the room and were looking for the sniper.

Jen, after holding herself back for the longest time in her life, let it go… and there was no holding back; she screams, "Get down!"; James decides to screw the whole thing and get rid of as many guards as he can. The only thing that stops him is that instinct to hit the ground until Jen finishes her reign of a massacre on the defending forces. The other thing he sees is Casey going at it like it was his last fight. "Damn, he's really pissed about something." James mutters under his breath as his training kicks in and automatically reloads his rifle, ready for the idiots to start running when they realize fighting Jen in her Kamikaze mode is like fighting a Cybertronian with nothing but rocks… it's not a very good picture.

All of a sudden the reactor starts to whir and brighten up like the sun. James then signals to everyone in the squad to, quote, "Get the hell out of here!" The rest of the squad responds in nanoseconds and is ready to get to the door, armed with rifles, grenades, and most lethal of all… rockets. -"Jen, you need to get the hell out of here! The damned thing's gonna blow any minute now!"- James says into his radio. His response is: -"She can't hear you; once she goes into it, she can't come out of it by choice. She has to let it run its course and then she'll be back to her normal self."- James just stops dead in his tracks. –"Casey, how are you talking to me? I thought you could only talk to Jen, and even then, only telepathically."- Casey then races to him and transmits, -"This Visor is the only way I can talk to you. Remember that I had this on during lunch and the surprise assault?"- James thinks back to that day, and it hits him and he nods then turns to leave, seeing as how everyone is already outside ready for him to reunite with them.

James then sends him and Jen a message, using a quote from an old movie he once watched as a kid, -"We are here; we are waiting…"- Casey picks up on it and says, -"Optimus Prime, at the end of the live action movie Transformers." James nods and sprints for the door. Casey then turns his attention to a more pressing matter: Jen's Kamikaze episode.

"_Jen, did you at least hear what we were saying? If not, I'll repeat it for you._" He tells Jen. She responds with, "_Yes, I heard it, and that old phrase he used, too._" Casey then assesses the body count, which after a while comes up to somewhere around six hundred. He thinks, "Dear God, she's really gotten worse." He then races to where Jen is still wreaking havoc on the soldiers and wraps around her torso and says, "_It's time to go, Jen. The reactor is about to blow and send us to the point of no return._" Jen then slows down and this sends the men into a panic frenzy as they're trying to get as far from the reactor as possible… but they were already too late. It was a futile attempt to run in Jen's mind, but against her reason, she bolts for it… only to see a blinding light and feel a skull-splitting headache. Casey got thrown to the door unraveling from her torso while she got slightly irradiated and buried under a pile of cement, metal, and wood. Casey gets knocked out cold from the impact into the ground. It was the biggest loss the Resistance had and would ever suffer.

To Casey, it felt like something had been chained to his mind and was cursed to stay there until his death. The first thing that came to his mind was what had happened at the complex. He immediately tries to move but his body hurts so much he stops dead and lays there until it subsides. James then walks in, and says, "Well, you're awake at least… You okay, or feel like crap?" Casey then realizes he doesn't have his Visor on, so he points to his head. James then realizes the same thing and pulls his laptop out and opens a notepad. He then explains to Casey to type his response on the keyboard. Casey nods his head understandingly and moves his tail to the keyboard slowly. James then notices he's still a little sore and asks, "You know what happened to Jen? We searched for her, but couldn't find her." Casey then hits the Caps lock button and types: "WHAT?! You haven't found her yet I can still sense her, I just can't talk to her because we're too damned far away." James reads what he said and answers, "Like I said, we searched and searched but couldn't find her. If you can still sense her but can't talk to her then that means she's still alive… Damn, I really should've stayed there until you came to, then we could've found her like that, right?" Casey nods his head. "Well, the place was a disaster when we went searching, but if we use you as a tracking device we could easily find her in no time!" Casey smiles, knowing he'll find her in no time once the connection settles when they get close. Casey then types: "Our connection works when we get close to each other, but we can only sense the other when we go past that certain distance. So, when we get close enough to her I'll get as close as I can and see if she's injured and then… Can you keep a secret?" James reads it and nods his head thinking this is pretty important if he's asking for secrecy. Casey continues: "I'll bite her and then after a few seconds she recovers and is back to normal as compared to being knocked out cold when I bite someone else." James then responds, "Well, how in the hell is that fair? I guess it makes sense considering… Don't your brainwaves have to be in sync to talk to someone else?" Casey nods his head; James adds, "That makes sense now that I think about it."

Casey then starts playing a really old song called 'Both Ways (remix)' and James picks up on it and says, "So the connection works both ways then?" Casey then nods his head. "Okay, so let me get this straight. You and Jen have brainwave synced communication allowing you to keep a secret in plain sight. The second thing would be your venom, although this does seem a little unfair it makes sense to me…" he then types what Casey said about his venom being able to heal Jen and knock out anyone else into a coma. Casey types in response: "For someone I've talked to for only an hour at max maybe, you pick this up pretty quickly." He then types: "So, when do we start looking for Jen?" It takes James a second to think; then he then responds, "As soon as you're up to full strength, tough guy. It won't be long; I know that for a fact." Casey then smiles at him, which kind of surprises James a bit. He then remarks, "Wow, now I've seen everything."

Meanwhile, back at the obliterated complex, Jen is just coming to, she then takes in her surroundings, the one thing she knew wasn't right was that everything seemed so… out of proportion, like out of an old fantasy. So she started searching for… what, she didn't, or more rather, couldn't remember. The only thing that came to mind was one name. She tried to remember what the name belonged to, but all she could get was something really long with diamonds down the back; so she screams the name as loud and long as she could, "CASEY!"


	2. Getting up to Speed

**Predictability:**

**Getting up to Speed**

Casey awakes with a jerk, "What was that?! I thought I heard Jen's voice. Damn, I really hope it was her… either that or I must have bitten someone else and I'm hallucinating." He then assesses his physical strength… "Well, at least I healed overnight, thankfully. Well, I guess I'll rest a bit and then go find James and next we'll go search for Jen." After a while he gets up and starts for the food court. "Maybe he's still there. He was here in the room yesterday, so it would make sense to assume he's at lunch with his friends." It doesn't take long for him to find the building; when he enters the room everyone turns to look at him and it makes him feel really uneasy not being there with Jen. Suddenly he hears James call out, "Hey Casey! Come over here; you can eat with me." So, like he offered, Casey zips for James's table. "Oh, by the way, I picked this up for you; thought you might need it until we find Jen." James says as he sets Casey's Visor on his head… "There. Feel better now you're up and moving around, and with something to communicate with?" he asks. Casey answers, "Yeah, but like I said yesterday: I really want to find Jen. It feels weird not being here with her." James then starts to hum a tune. Casey, a bit distracted by said tune, asks, "When do we go find her?" James then pauses and answers, "Like I said when you're up to full strength and I finish my meal… which, by the way, I caught something I'm sure you might like." He then pulls a stick with a bunch of dead rats, mice, and other small rodents on it.

James then comments, "Have you ever had roasted meat before?" Casey thinks a bit, and then answers, "It shouldn't be too bad; what's the worst that could happen?" He then takes the kabob in his tail and eats it like a Popsicle; which makes James chuckle a bit. Casey then looks at him and asks, "What?" James then responds, "Ah, nothing… I was just thinking… So, you ready to go? I just need to find my four-wheeler and we'll go find that glutton for trouble." Casey nudges him a bit on the shoulder and wraps around James' torso the same way he did on Jen. James then asks, "You sure you won't kill me like that?" Casey just nods his head. The duo of a rescue team then heads for the vehicle depot.

James then assesses his weapons and on seeing Casey still has his Visor on says, "You still… oh, okay then." Casey then unravels off James and waits until he has all his weapons in place. "Okay, you can wrap on me now… Let's go find Jen!" Casey then starts singing a song he would usually listen to as a hatchling; the lyrics going like:

_The cycle repeated as explosions broke in the sky. All that I needed was the one thing I couldn't find, and you were there at the turn waiting to let me know: we're building it up to break it back down. We're building it up to burn it down… We can't wait to burn it to the ground._

_The colors conflicted as the flames, climbed into the clouds… I wanted to fix this, but couldn't stop from tearing it down and you were there at the turn caught in the burning glow, and I was there at the turn waiting to let you know:_

_We're building it up to break it back down. We're building it up to burn it down… we can't wait to burn it to the ground. You told me yes; you held me high, and I believed when you told that lie. I played soldier, you played king, and struck me down, when I kissed that ring. You lost that right, to hold that crown._

_I built you up, but you let me down, so when you fall, I'll take my turn and fan the flames as your blazes burn… and you were there at the turn waiting to let me know: _

_We're building it up to break it back down… we're building it up to burn it down. We can't wait to burn it to the ground. When you fall, I'll take my turn and fan the flames as your blazes burn._

_We can't wait to burn it to the ground. When you fall, I'll take my turn and fan the flames as your blazes burn. We can't wait to burn it to the ground…_

It did take some time to get to the blown up complex, though, but the good thing was that the neural connection between Casey and Jen had been reestablished. Casey was quick to point out where she had been the last time he'd seen her. "She should be over there somewhere, I think. If that's where the entrance used to be, then that's where she should be." James then stops a few yards from the ruined gate to the once large reactor manufacturing complex. "I wonder what the hell happened to her. I hope she's alright… if she's still alive now she's one tough shell of a girl." Casey then scrambles for the entrance, while retracing his steps. "Okay, there was a large explosion… then I blacked out and ended up in a hospital bed. I also remember…" All of sudden he hears Jen's voice coming from under the rubble and through his head at the same time saying, "_Casey, can you get me out of here. I don't have a damned clue where I am, and I'm really starving._" Once he gets the rubble cleared away, though, he hears a scream like none he's ever heard before.

"WHAT THE HELL…?" Jen screams, but then it becomes clear that the snake _is_ Casey. "Wow, I thought you were a bit smaller, but…" she immediately hits the ground out of sheer hunger, and starts to hyperventilate. Casey, for a moment, just stares in absolute shock at the girl; then the hyperventilating snaps him back to reality. It then hits him that Jen must've had an amnesia attack and was reduced to the size of his tail length. He then just lets a drop of his venom land on her convulsing body and it instantly soaks in through the skin and does its magic as it's always done for over twenty years. Jen then calms down and, as a side-effect of what Casey did, she falls fast asleep. James then gets there just in time to see Casey let a drop of his venom drop onto something humanoid and smaller than him. "What the hell happened to her?" He asks as he kneels down to slip Jen into a cryo-tube. It takes him a minute to figure it out, though. "Oh… wait, no, no, no, no, NO!" He then races for the ATV, with Casey on his heels.

"Okay… so fill me in on what you know that I don't, because I just witnessed something out of a scary movie." James then pauses, trying to catch his breath. "I think I know what that reactor was supposed to do now… but I don't think you'll be happy at all with what I'm about to say, Casey." Casey then registers the look on James' face and says, "What the hell are you talking about?" James then revs the engine and explains what the doctor was trying to do with the reactor they had blown up not too long ago. Casey, in an almost calm voice says, "So, that's it then; she's stuck the way she is and… and…" He never finishes. James then starts to hum a song he used to listen to when he was given something like this.

Casey then starts to reminisce about the years gone by. One of those being when Jen had come back from school crying, all because one of the other students had ripped her shirt and had to pin it back together. He could never forget what had happened that day… He never left her alone again after that. It had fallen under his "Unforgivable" list; what had happened was this girl had been jealous of Jen because she thought Jen was getting "a bit too popular". The next day he hid in Jen's backpack and start for this girl and surprised her in the girls' bathroom and in a fit of anger bit her… and she had to be in the hospital for the rest of the school year. It was a memory he couldn't –even if he wanted to- forget. So he started to sing a song she always wanted him to sing to her when she went to sleep; the lyrics going something like:

_When she was just a girl she expected the world, but it flew away from her reach. So she ran away in her sleep and dreamed of Paradise (3x) every time she closed her eyes. Whoa-oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh-oh_

_When she was just a girl she expected the world, but it flew away from her reach, and the bullets catch in her teeth. Life goes on; it gets so heavy; the wheel breaks the butterfly; every tear, a waterfall._

_In the night, the stormy night she closed her eyes. In the night, the stormy night, away she'd fly and dreamed of Paradise (3x) Whoa-oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh-oh She dreamed of Paradise; whoa-oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh-oh. La. La. La. La. La. La. La._

_So lying underneath those stormy skies she said oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh… I know the sun must set to rise… This could be paradise… Paradise this could be paradise… whoa-oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh-oh. This could be paradise… Paradise; could be paradise Whoa-oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh-oh. This could be paradise; Paradise; could be paradise… whoa-oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh-oh._

James can't help but hum along as Casey sings the song. After Casey finishes the last verse he comments, "I think that would fit our cargo pretty well… I don't see otherwise." Casey nods in agreement and says, "She would have me play it before she went to sleep every night. It seemed reasonable given the circumstances during school… especially given that one day she came home crying because one of the 'popular' girls had ripped her shirt in front of everyone during the last period of the day and made her a scapegoat. I can't forget those two days… even after I bit the little… in the girls' bathroom." James then realizes that Casey was connecting the dots in Jen's behavior. "Yeah, I just hope you gave that bitch a good scare for that one… Did you?" Casey then tells him the whole story. After he finishes, James comments, "Wow, no wonder why she was so lethal then… that is if she hasn't lost her Kamikaze mode." James then gives this some thought and asks, "Was this during her high-school years?" Casey nods, and says, "It was the end of her sophomore year." James then checks the cryo-tube in his pocket and sighs. It was really strange having something like this in his pocket.

It then strikes him that he could have a reduced Exo-suit about six feet tall made for her. "Who knows, it might work. The hard part will be trying to get Jen to use it." Casey then looks at James and asks, "Are you planning something out in that head of yours?" James then explains the plan to Casey and he almost immediately understands. "Yeah, that could work. We just need to explain it to the Board." James then says, "Yeah, but what are we going to say about this?" as he indicates the cryo-tube in his pocket. Casey then explains, "I'll show them. I'll just tell them everything… or, at least what we were doing and what the cause of our actions was; the reason being the blown up complex."

It isn't long until these two pull up to the Cans. The general in charge then approaches them and asks why they're requesting urgent response from the Board. James then shows her the cryo-tube and Casey, being as restrained as he can be, given Jen's in a particularly dangerous position. The general then waves them into the building and escorts them to the Board's Conference Room.

The head of the meeting says, "Soldier, state name, rank, and request." James then splits to attention and says, "Sir, Corp. James Macintyre, on urgent request for an Exo-suit Mk. II." He then shows the head the cryo-tube currently holding Jen hostage. Casey then unwraps and slithers to the tube and just sits there and watches it like a hawk on its dinner. James then asks, "Sir, this is of high importance… not only to me, but to the snake as well." The head then spots Casey eyeing the tube and everyone else in the room. "If I'm not mistaken, your name is Casey… a friend of Jen's, correct?" Casey then motions to James to give him his Visor, and he does. Casey then says, "I doubt you've ever talked to a snake before, so I'll say this much: the girl in this tube is my very being. I've never left her side except in very demanding circumstances. She's been bonded to me almost since birth. I would greatly appreciate it if you delivered the corporal's request in a timely manner… I mean no disrespect… it's just I would feel a whole lot better if I knew for sure Jen is in safe hands for now." The commanding officer just stands there a little slack-jawed, not sure what he just heard. Casey then looks him in the eye and says, "If I find her missing, or in one of those labs being tested, I swear upon all that is righteous I will kill everyone responsible for said experimentation." Everyone in the room who has a Visor on goes dead silent upon hearing this; they then repeat what Casey said to those who don't once the feeling of stunned shock has passed. Then James then makes a move toward the tiny tube and slowly, so as to show Casey he's not going to tamper with it, puts it back in his pocket. He then says, "Casey, do you want to tell them what you told me on the ride back?" Casey then nods and looks at everyone in the room in turn and says, "How many Visors do we have in this room? I will only tell this story once." James then repeats what Casey said and then everyone gets a Visor on and they sit down in chairs assuming this has to be important.

Casey then starts off with, "The house owners were having a bad day with a rat infestation so I just thought I might as well help out and have a feast. I still can't get that thought out of my head to this very day. Jen had a basketball game toward the end of the school day, and from what I could get out of her about it wasn't very good at all. She had come home with her shirt ripped almost down to the seams, and was crying so bad she couldn't even talk straight so she just used our neural connection to tell me what had happened. The way it looked was she was walking back out of the dressing rooms and a group of other girls walked up to her and the ring leader starts to insult her and it escalates to the point where she rips Jen's shirt and kicks her in the shin and walks away. Sounds like jealousy if you ask me, but the worst part of it was that everyone in the gym saw what happened and the coaches were already in their office. That's when she just lost it and ran. She ran all the way to her house and up to her room and shut the door. So after I asked her what the problem was she let me in and started to tell me what had happened. The feeling I got when I remembered who it was sent every fiber in me into overdrive and it just didn't stop." Casey then curls up into an almost disc-like pattern and continues, "So I asked her if she could take me with her to school in her backpack, but I didn't tell her what I was going to do after that, because that was the surprise. We agreed on it and we go to bed as we normally do: I play a song as she's going to sleep and when she does I slip in beside her on the bed. When we do get to school the next day she's confronted with this same girl again and the episode starts all over again. So I just follow her into the girls' restroom and wait it out until she shows up and I basically attack her while she's in the stall. I know what you might be thinking, but consider this: You do that to Jen and sooner or later I'll find you and possibly knock you out cold for a random period of time; you insult Jen, you insult me; that is the basic principle in this story. It does make her scream out in terror though, which is what I was aiming for and then the anger gets to a boil and I bit her right on her hip and made it _hurt_. Then I just go find Jen and stay with her the rest of the day and just watch as they take the bitch away to a hospital. We never saw her again that year." Casey then stops and motions for James to let him on and James, still a little shaken, walks over to him and lets him up his arm and around his torso. He then asks the board as a whole, "I would think it best if we could have a suit made for her… just so something like that doesn't happen again."

Everyone in the room instantly start talking to each other about a prototype suit that hasn't been exactly field tested but has shown to be effective with normal soldiers. One of them then asks, "What do you have in mind, Corporal?" James then proceeds to explain what he told Casey about the Exo-suit being downsized as well. The officer then states, "It hasn't been made known yet, but we're working on a prototype suit for marines to use as they would use (and to replace) their normal body armor. We could have one redone a bit for this case, though it will take some time to get it built. I would think about a month or so should be all the time we need." James then nods and Casey then asks, "Can you have it colored black, teal, and silver? Those were her body armor colors; I would want to see if that will reawaken her dormant memory at all, if possible." The officer then gets this look in her eye that says she knows something, but isn't sure how to say it. Casey then recognizes that look and hisses. He immediately realizes Jen's condition is permanent. "No, that couldn't be the case. You knew what he was doing with that damned reactor?!" James then flinches, not quite understanding the line of conversation. The officer then says in a calm voice, "Jenifer is a very good indicator of what our suspicions were; the tube the corporal found is further evidence of what he was planning and it looks like he only got one victim… and he wasn't even able to capture it, at best… which is a good thing, because he lost the power source for his project. I just hope no one else has to suffer that kind of punishment. I would think it's best to lose one man than an entire company, know what I mean?" Casey then looks at the tube in James' pocket and back at the officer and says, "I'll make damn sure she's the last. What can we do to help her gain her memory back, if at all? The reason I ask is because she used to have an unpredictable anger episode that almost always ended in someone losing their limb or life, the simple reason being she doesn't know who her parents are and I only remember her mother very vaguely. If the Kamikaze has stayed where it is she'll be even worse simply because she can't even remember who the hell she is, let alone the fact she can't remember who her parents are!"

Another officer then steps forward and says, "Yes, she was, truly, one of our best assets. If she's been reduced to this…" He indicates the tube in James' pocket, "…then she's basically as good as dead… no offense. I say that because _if _her Kamikaze mode has disappeared completely." He says to Casey, seeing that he's ready to bite. Casey then restrains himself and answers, "None taken; I see your point, though." James then pulls the tube out of his pocket to check it and immediately pops it open seeing as how Jen is coming to. "Casey, take over from here. I don't want to hurt her. I'll trust you on this." He says as Jen slides onto the table. Casey dashes for her and circles around with her in the center and just lets a drop of his venom fall on her, just as he did when he found her barely alive and maybe even sane. It then becomes apparent that the suit is priority number one -Casey then just watches as she starts to come to.

He then plays that age old song –Paradise by Coldplay- she would ask him to play when they were young. Jen then starts to register her surroundings, all she can think about is a song she doesn't know the name of, but takes an immediate liking to. A voice in her head says, "_It's called Paradise by Coldplay, if you're wondering._" She almost jumps up and immediately falls back down. She then says, "Who said that?" She then spots a large head about her height and almost screams, but something in her gut says it's not hostile, but feels familiar. "Okay, I feel safe with you for some reason, but answer me this: Is your name Casey?" Casey then says, "_Yes, I bit you when you were born, and we've been together ever since._" Jen then jumps a little but not as badly as she did last time. "You can't talk legitimately, but you can talk through my mind?" Casey nods, and just lays his head down and sticks his tongue out. "Okay, I see, but can I do it, too?" Casey says in response, "_Yes, just think about what you want to say to me and I'll hear it._" Jen then looks around at all the giants looking at her in a quizzical fashion. She then says, "For some reason I feel a lot safer with a snake than with anyone else. I don't have a good feeling about this. I know I shouldn't be scared, but it's kind of hard not to be." Casey then wraps his tail around her torso and says, "_Okay, then we'll go back to the Can with James._"

Jen then starts to think about how they'll cope with someone like her, but it doesn't upset her as much as she thought it would. She then thinks, "_When can we leave? I really don't have a good feeling about this._" Casey replies, "_That's how we used to communicate… and still do._" Jen jumps slightly, but finally understands how the connection works and she says, "For some reason I feel safer with a snake that could eat me no problem, but I don't think he would, rather than with someone else." James lets the tips of his mouth curl into a smile, and thinks that would've been what she would have said if she hadn't lost her memory, in the same situation, regardless. James then steps forward a bit closer to Casey and looks right at Jen and asks, "So, how do you want to do it?... the name's James, by the way." Jen then looks up; spots him, then immediately thinks, "_For some stupid reason, everything… including this guy seems so damn familiar, but I just can't quite reach the memory._" Casey then explains to Jen that James is a friend of hers. Jen then looks at James and stares at him for a second, trying to see if anything will ring a bell in her mind. All of a sudden she gets an almost serene feeling and, unknowingly starts to hover in place, which makes everyone in the room, including James and Casey, freeze. They all stare at her, and she hits the ground thinking, "_What the hell….?_" Casey then says, "_You looked at James, and started to hover in place. Do you know that?_" Jen then answers, "No, I don't remember even moving at all. I just got a really good feeling when I looked at him." James then says, "Well, you can try it again just be sure… you want to?" Jen then nods and clears her head and calms down after the initial shock of the fall. She then starts to take off and after a bit is about ten feet up off the table. James then gets ready to catch her… just in case. She then says, "This is so weird! I don't know how I got here but I know I can fly… or at the very least hover in a spot for a bit."

She then starts to slip… loses it, and screams as she starts to fall but this time she lands on James' hand and then, as if a little off balance, tries to stand. She immediately decides to sit, thinking she can get her bearings better that way. One of the other officers then says, "What just happened… did she just fly up and hold it for five minutes or so…? I can't even get over her size, let alone that!" James then answers, "It must be an effect of the radiation she absorbed. The way I understand is it was because of her size we could never find her under all that crap; another thing I would like to add is her Kamikaze mode might even be far worse than it's ever been simply because of the fact she can't remember who she used to be… let alone the fact she doesn't know who her parents are." He then clears his throat and continues, "One more thing is the radiation could've unlocked some more of her dormant DNA and that's how she was able to fly… but I would have to agree with Casey when I say this: Do not even consider an experiment. You might get something you don't even want to encounter. Jen's Kamikaze mode is a very good example."

Everyone then nods in agreement. The commanding officer then says, after watching the spectacle in front of his eyes, "I guess it will even more imperative that we get that suit in… then we won't have a pissed off snake on the loose." He then looks at Casey and at Jen. Jen then asks Casey what they're talking about and he answers, "_James just thought you might need something to help cope with your size, so we're having a suit made for you. You may not remember but you told me you had piloted an Exo-suit… so I thought apply the same principle to your current condition and have you use a modified suit of armor… Make sense?_" Jen then thinks it through and after a minute says, "_So it's just like a Gundam suit off of Mobile Fighter G Gundam?_" Casey then says, "Yes, that's the main idea, though the marine armor's referred to as a Stinger; the 'Gundam suit' is an Exo-suit." Jen nods, understanding what he explained. She then asks him to play Paradise again and he does. This time she flies around and against all understanding, forms a sphere of light in her hand. James, a bit under his breath, then comments, "Yup, we're _so_ screwed!" He then catches her for the third time since she almost lost it and fell out of the air. "You need to learn how to land; you do know that, right?" He asks her as she starts to get back up and she answers, "_That's_ what I'm working on." She then jumps up and hovers mid-jump. "Wow, that's persistence." One person comments as she tries to control one of her light spheres. Casey replies to James, "No… the Caste is screwed." After a while, Jen finally stops and sits down to catch her breath. It stuns everyone in the room that she can do all that –the reason being, while she was in cryo-sleep, from the time she was put in the tube to when James checks it, her DNA was settling down after being scrambled so much; this would come in handy when she needs a place to sleep or travel later on- and still be awake with minimal fatigue. James then says, upon realizing this, "Can you see if this can be replicated as a protective shell for her to sleep in at night? I think that would help a lot… and it would minimize the risk of someone finding out about her and trying to take advantage of her size." He then hands the small cryo-tube over to one of the officers and they get a good look at it.

It's only an inch taller than Jen, with about a quarter inch on either end; its width being about an inch or so. The one thing that sticks out in terms of physical oddities is a clasp that can be opened by any normal size person at one end of the tube. James then shows him how it opens, the correct orientation –which has the clasp on top and the door opening like any other cryo-tube-, and how Jen was oriented in it. After a brief explanation they tell him the tube can be replicated and delivered to them in two weeks. Upon hearing this, Casey starts to lighten up. Jen then asks to see what they're looking at. When she does get a look at it though she gets really nervous and starts to back away from it. James then tells the officer to hide the tube, for Jen's sake. Casey is the first one to voice what everyone is wondering and asks, "_What made you back away from it, Jen?_" She then answers him so everyone can hear, "I can't help but think about someone handing me a rifle and a man getting shot. I don't know exactly, but I keep getting a bad feeling when I look at that thing… I don't know how else to put it…" Casey then tries to calm her down by playing Paradise again and it works. She then restarts, "I don't know, but something in my gut says it's from someone I've been looking for." James then looks her dead in the eye and says, "All I was thinking was we could use it as a place for you to sleep, and, if circumstances demand it, a transport. That's all we're going to use it for… You can trust me on that, Jen."

Casey then asks her what she means, and she says, "I don't exactly know, but all I get is a fleeting dream of shooting someone then a huge explosion and then… nothing. At least until you found me." James then snaps to, and says, knowing exactly what she means, "That was no dream, Jen. That's what happened before you lost your memory. You had finally gained control of your anger and when I had loaded your BR with a few tranquilizer darts you took aim on the man at the console and fired at him and hit him in the neck… though you didn't kill him. That was the last time I saw you at normal size."

Jen finally calms down and says, "That's it; that's what happened? You just want the tube to be something for me to sleep in at night, and something to transport me in?" James nods and adds, "The transport idea is only so no one unknowingly harms you… know what I mean?" Jen then thinks it through, and after a while she says, "Okay, but I want you to be in charge of the tube, alright?" He then looks everyone in the eye, in turn, and they all agree James is in charge of the tube's transport. Jen then says, "…but until we get a second one, I'd feel a lot safer sleeping with Casey." James chuckles and smiles upon hearing this, but understands what she's saying at the same time. Casey then says, "_So, shall we get started on your training?_" Jen nods and hovers over to him. She then starts to beat on him, though not very hard, a rhythm she can't exactly name, but remembers the drumroll. Casey then starts to move and she flies up onto James' shoulder and sits there like it's the most normal thing in the world. James then lets Casey on him, and then says, "Okay, just to recap: You'll have that tube back to us in two weeks' time, and the suit in a little less than one month, correct?" The general then nods and says, "Precisely, but I want to add one more thing if Jen doesn't mind…" She then looks at the little pixie sitting on James' shoulder. Jen says, "Yeah?" She continues with, "… She'll be with either you or Casey at all times. I say this just so no one takes advantage of her size… at least until she can get her power under control." The general then looks back at Jen and asks, "Make sense, Lieutenant?"

This last question really gets her attention, and James then explains that she was a lieutenant during the mission that went and screwed her memory up. Jen thinks it over and after a bit of thought decides to hover and see if she can land without someone having to catch her, but just like last time, it's James that catches her. "Crap, this is harder than I thought it would be. I thought it would be like…" She then tries again and this time she aims for the ground and when she's a few inches from it she drops and gets right back up, a smile on her face. James then looks at her quizzically and asks, "What are you…? Oh, okay, I see." Jen then realizes she's been doing it wrong up until then, and tries the hover-jet approach. She then heads for the barracks, with James right behind her. They then run into their first problem: explaining to the rest of the squad what happened to her.

When she did get to the barracks, she did just that. She flew over to the table and came in on a jet's landing. What she didn't realize was someone was waiting for her. The perpetrator then grabs her and is about to leave when she sees James, with Casey on his shoulders, run up to her. Upon spying Jen's face, James pulls his BR on the woman, aims and says in a no-bullshit tone, "Drop her now! I don't have to explain what happens when she goes ape-shit on you; just make her mad… or wait about ten seconds." Casey then asks Jen, "_You okay? Or do you want me to bite her?_" Jen then says, "_I'll take care of her, just watch_." He then stops and watches her. James then registers the look on Jen's face, and the fact that she has her arms loose… which was the woman's worst mistake. Jen then creates a ball of light in her hands and says, "Don't move and I won't let this loose on you, bitch." The woman then looks at her and almost screams in horror at the light ball in her cargo's hands. Jen then tosses the ball at her chest and it hits its intended target right in the kisser. "Whoa, that's a close one!" Jen mutters under her breath when she almost slips, but it doesn't take long to stay in the air and hover for a moment. The attacker loses her grip and Jen immediately gets her mind calmed and hovers in the air as the would-be kidnapper hits the ground, unconscious from the energy bomb Jen conjured up.

James then asks her, "How did you do that? I was about ready to shoot her." Jen answers, "I just thought I would try out my defenses and use a ball on her when she grabbed me. It was easy. The tough part is trying to catch myself in mid-air." James then says, "You seem like a doomsday clock ticking down to something really bad." Jen then looks at him quizzically and asks, "What do you mean?" He then tries to think it through; then he answers, "It's like this: you seem like someone who's in complete control, even when faced with a situation that could be life-threatening." Jen nods, understanding what he's saying and answers, "Yeah, that's something good to have during times like that." James then goes over to the body of the soldier and picks her up and swings her onto his shoulder, and says, "Well, might as well take this inside and see what it was about you she wanted so damned badly." Jen agrees and zips for the doorknob and opens it surprisingly well considering her size. The trio then heads for the bunks, since it's been a long day and the sun has long since disappeared over the horizon. What they're greeted with is something they'll probably never forget; when they do enter they're attacked not by guns but by a song. The rest of the guys in the bunk had set up a surprise party for James since it was his birthday.

They're surprised when everyone in the room screams, "Happy Birthday, James!" It's a huge surprise to him since he wasn't even aware it was his birthday. After he finally gets it he says, "Well, I definitely wasn't expecting this, guys… thanks!" On the table is a cake with "Happy Birthday James" written in the 'Halo' font, and what looks like a replica Warthog with James on the turret, Jen driving, and, just for laughs, Casey in the passenger seat right above it. When James sees the cake he immediately puts the unconscious girl in a chair and says, "Wow! That is one awesome cake! Who made it?!" Kevin then answers, "A few of us. We split into groups. One was in charge of the cake, another in charge of the deco, and the last in charge of the presents; one from each of us." James then does a head count and comes up with eight.

One of the guys then spots the pixie-sized Jen hiding behind James and asks, "Uh… James, who is that little girl behind you? She looks like a pixie." James then snaps back to reality, realizing he hadn't seen Jen, and he says softly to her, "Jen, it's okay, they just startled us. They had just set up a surprise party for me." She then calms down and flies over to the cake and looks at the replica for a minute and at everyone in the room. It had gone really quiet when she made herself visible; it was quite a shock when they figured out what had happened to her. James then explains to them what had caused him to be here so late, but it doesn't seem to faze anyone very much and so the party's focus switched to what James had done that day. He then takes a deep breath and starts to talk, but he pauses and looks at the woman in the chair, only to find her looking at him with a livid look of sheer hatred. He then tries to explain and she calms down a bit. She then asks him, "What was that I caught in the dark on the table?"

Jen then jumps to cut him off and says, "That was me… sorry about that. I just thought you were working for someone else." James then adds, "It's because Casey had found me in the lunch room and we decided to go find her and when we did get there I took a look around and found a small cryo-tube and decided to take it as something for the brass, but when I saw Casey let a drop of his venom out on something on the ground I bolted for him and found her unconscious. So, while we were heading back Casey and I had agreed on making a suit for her. We took it straight to the board and that's why we were so late getting here. What I want to know is why you grabbed her." The soldier then says, "I thought I'd try and get you to follow me in here, but looks like it worked either way…" She adds, looking at Jen, "…even if I did get knocked unconscious by a damned pixie!"

Jen then snaps back, "What are you talking about? I am not a freaking pixie, besides I don't even have wings, not that I need them anyway." It then becomes apparent to the woman what Jen means by her last comment. In a surprised voice she says, "You… you can… fly?!" With a grin Jen says, "I'm working on it, but to answer your question: yes, I can fly." James then tries to cut the drama episode and says, "Jen, try not to do what you did earlier or someone is likely to get severely hurt, or worse."

Jen then asks him, "How would it be worse? Are you talking about my 'Kamikaze mode'?" James nods and says, "If there's anyone that knows firsthand how dangerous you are in that state… it's Casey." Jen then realizes Casey isn't in the room and thinks, "_Casey, where are you?_" The response is, "_Yes, I'm here. I'm just watching from a safe distance."_ Jen then thinks, "_Coward… you had better get your butt out here!_" Casey then tries to surprise attack her but fails due to her flight capability. "_Well, I tried, right?_" Jen nods, grinning at him. He then plays Paradise again and everyone stops and listens for a minute. James then says to everyone, "Who wants to see Jen do loops? I mean if you got the ability, you better have some fun with it, right?" Jen then, instinctively, gives him her 'Core famous "I really hate you right now!" look. The idea seems to go over well, so everyone starts to chant, "Do some loops!" Jen then says, "Okay... but no light show then…" This gets their attention and someone finally asks, "Can you do a flying light show, please?" Jen thinks it over and after a bit of consideration and after seeing the look on everyone's faces, including James, finally says, "Okay, but we need to go outside for this. I don't want to destroy the barracks." A lot of cheers go up from the small crowd. It then becomes apparent that it's about midnight, but it seems fitting for what's about to take place. James then leads everyone outside to see Jen unleash something truly spectacular.

Jen then lands on James' shoulder to catch her breath and says, "Can I have some water? I haven't drunk anything since before the mission that screwed my memory up." Someone then hands James a bottle and he fills the cap and she takes some on her hand and sucks on the bubble of water on it. After a second to readjust and calm down she takes flight and forms two spheres this time, one in each hand, and does a few loops and screams, "Okay, before I use someone for target practice get me something to shoot at!" They immediately roll up a barrel of water and she tosses one sphere at it and it sends a huge shockwave through the barrel, splitting it open and getting some of the spectators wet. "Whoops, sorry! I didn't mean to spill it on you." Jen says with a hint of a smile on her face. She then makes another sphere. She then tosses one into the air and says, "Who wants to see some fireworks?" What she gets are more cheers, and whoops from the crowd.

She then asks Casey, "_Can you play a techno song for this? I think that would fit what I'm going for._" Casey then starts playing 'Halo Theme (MJOLNIR mix)' and Jen then lets them have it. She maneuvers the spheres in formation to spell out James' name and then another batch of spheres to match. "Okay, here goes nothing!" and with that she detonates them all, one at a time, to really show her skills. After the last sphere goes boom it becomes apparent that she's about to pass out. James sees it and says to Casey, "Are you gonna catch her or am I?" Casey then realizes the same thing and bolts to intercept her as she's about to lose it.

When she does come to, it's about nine a.m. and Jen sits up, a bit startled by the large cylinder encircling her. "Crap, how did I pass out from that last night?" Casey responds thoughtfully, "_You expended a bit too much energy in those spheres you used in the fireworks._" She thinks it over in her head and nods in agreement, she then asks him, "Where is James? Last I remember he was watching the light show I put on for him, right?" Casey replies, "He went for a walk at about an hour ago; so he should be back any time now… are you hungry?" It finally dawns on Jen that she hasn't eaten since before the mission she doesn't even remember, and she responds, "What's on the menu?" Casey pulls out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich James had made earlier and was still a bit warm. Jen looks at it for a second and then decides to slice it into manageable pieces and save some for lunch. She then practices on making a knife out of her spheres and uses them to do just that. While watching her, Casey comments, "_Wow, you're pretty resourceful, given you've got what some would call a handicap._"

Jen then pushes him a bit and says, "_Yeah, but I might as well use it if I've got it, know what I mean?_" Casey just stares at her for a bit, and Jen then says, a little nervously, "I don't know what to do with this thing." She indicates her body suit, which hadn't been taken off since the recon mission. It then hits Casey that she needs a second suit. He then says calmly, "_Okay, I know what we could do for that…_" She then looks at him a bit quizzically and he explains, "_What I mean is we could heat some water up and put some dark food coloring in it so you won't be as exposed. I just want to know how long you can hold your breath._" Catching on, Jen says, "_Okay, so just fill up a seven inch cup with warm water and color it black, then you can take my suit and drop it into the cleaners, right?_" Casey nods in agreement, "_Yeah, it could be a small routine. You take a bath while your suit is being washed and when you do finish up and get it on I could roll into a tower and you can use that as a dressing room."_ Jen thinks it over and nods to herself. "_Yeah, I think that could work. I could take a bath in the morning, and the suit can get washed while I'm doing that… and when it is done I can use you as a dressing room. Yeah, I think it'll work._" Just then James walks in and spots Jen on the table talking to Casey apparently –given he can't hear anything, but he can see it in Jen's face. Upon seeing her, he comments, "Well, well, well, the pixie finally wakes up to join the fight." Jen then gives him her famous stare and he pauses a second, "Well, okay then, if you don't want to know what I just got from the Board a bit ago."

This gets their attention and Jen, sizzling with anticipation asks, "What is it… What is it… what is it… what is it?!" James replies "Don't do those happy loops just yet. It'll be a while before you'll be doing that." He then pulls out an exact replica of the tube he used to carry Jen in when they first found her and she immediately drops saying, "I thought it'd be the Exo-suit! I honestly thought it was going to be the freaking Exo-suit! Oh, well, at least I've got somewhere to sleep for keeps now." She sighs, and starts to form those suns again out of sheer frustration. James then tries to get her spirits up by saying, "Hey, they're working on that suit right now. I asked them what the progress was on it, and they said it was a bit slower than they previously thought. The guys at the facility are trying to come up with an alloy that can withstand your suns' heat; know what I mean?" Jen then disperses the sun she was tinkering with and looks at him with an expectant look in her eye. Casey then comes up to them and says, "_You want to go over and show them what you're capable of, and then with that they can finish the project a bit faster?_"

Jen nods her head and asks James, "Can we go over there and show them what I did last night? I don't think it would hurt at all. It would probably speed things up a bit, you know?" James then gets an evil grin on his face and pops the tube open and says, "Why the hell not? I guess it couldn't hurt." Casey then gets a feeling in the pit of his stomach -like something wasn't quite right- but decides to keep the feeling suppressed… just in case. He then wraps around James' torso just as he normally would've on Jen and she decides to fly over to the four wheeler parked outside. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Jen says as she starts doing loops in the sky above them. "Do you want to ride on me, or fly?" Jen quickly answers, "I'll fly beside you guys… I like it up here." "Okay then, just try to keep up!" James yells as he speeds off. Jen then chases after him screaming, "Hey, not fair! I wasn't ready… you crazy meat head." She mutters the last phrase under her breath, and decides to see just how fast she can go.

Casey then puts his tail in the air to see what it feels like and comments, "Wow, this feels _great_." James replies to him, "I know… I really like going out on drives just to feel that warm air on my face…" He adds, "You know if she'll catch up?" Casey then tries to talk to her saying, "_Jen where are you?_" She says to him, a bit surprised, "_I'm trying to find a dust trail, but no luck so far._" Casey pauses and thinks, "_Wait… that can't be right. Our connection always disintegrated when we were about a mile from each other… Jen where are you exactly?_" Jen then locates them and says in response, "_About a few hundred feet up above where you are… why?_" It then hits Casey that Jen's size and ability weren't all that was affected by the radiation; apparently it had increased their tether distance to each other. "_Well, okay then… you had better get yourself over here and then we'll see what to do from there, okay?_"

She doesn't respond, but instead dives straight for them; and in the blink of an eye almost, is flying right behind them. She then tries a flat loop, and goes around the four-wheeler and lands right behind the window in front of the handle bars. "I think I'll take that ride now, please!" James then opens the tube and she slides right in and decides to take a well-deserved nap. It's about two hours before they get there.

When they do get there James then gives the tube to Casey and opens it on him so Jen's sleeping form slides into Casey's appendage. She wakes up and immediately jumps into the air, thinking she's been kidnapped, but sees Casey looking at her. "Oh… it's just you. I thought I was in a containment unit for a second." Casey asks wonderingly, "_Was it a bad dream?_" Jen explains, "Yeah, I was trying to kill this one guy and he got me cornered… and just when I was about to kill him, I find myself looking at you." Casey nods and asks, "_Do you know who it was that cornered you?_" She answers, "… now that I think about it the name 'Dr. Halfway' comes to mind, but that's it." Casey snaps to, and explains to her that Dr. Halfway is the person who created the blown up reactor that screwed her memory up. "_Well, I'll kill him if and when I find the bastard… you can count on that! He'll pay for what he did to me, and for taking my parents from me, assuming they're already… dead._" Casey then plays Dangerous and it sends her into a flying frenzy and after a minute she screams, "Shut up!"

He stops and says, "_Yup, it still works… it still works._" Jen then says to him, panting out of fatigue, "Don't _ever_ do that _again_! I don't want to hear that song ever again." Casey puts his tail up on his right side and says, "_On a python's honor I swear never to play that song again._" Surprised, Jen asks, "_You're a python? I'd always thought you were a diamond back rattler._" Casey then tries, though unsuccessfully, to poke her for calling him a diamond back rattler. "_Okay, okay, you're a python… you're a python._" Casey then jumps her and she falls and gets caught under him and he says, "_Say 'Mercy' and I'll let you up._" Jen, after trying to get her arms loose and failing, says, "_Okay, mercy, I say mercy!_" Casey then pulls away and lets her up and then tries to get her again, only to miss her. James, with a hint of a smile in his eye, says, "Casey, you done harassing her or should I hold on to her (if you keep pushing your luck) so you don't get burned?" Casey answers, "Yeah, I'm done. I just wanted to test her reflexes." Jen snaps at him, "Bullshit! You tried to pin me down because I called you a rattler." James puts his hands up and says, "Okay, so you want to show them what you're capable of since you seem so full of energy now, Jen?" She pauses and looks at him and asks, "Can I use Casey for target practice?" James looks at her like she just lost her mind, and shakes his head, "If you do, I'll hold you down until you calm down a bit… got it?" With a defeated look on her face she says, "Okay, fine… but I still say he's a rattler." Casey replies, "_I'll start calling you a pixie then…_" Jen exclaims, "…now we're even." Casey nods in agreement with her.

James then pulls out a Hershey's bar and snaps the first two off and offers them to Jen, who, being in a worse state than before she left, accepts the two blocks, and almost inperceptively, finishes them. Now James and Casey are looking at her with looks of sheer surprise, and, not understanding, she asks, "What…? Crap, now I don't feel too…" she hiccups and continues, "…too great right now… although that was really good!" James registers what she did and says, "You might not want to eat that fast or you might suffer with hiccups for a while." Jen responds, in between hiccups, "Yeah… you're right… I don't like… it and it… makes me feel a bit weird." Seeing how bad they are, James pulls out his bottle and fills the cap and sets it beside her. She then takes a drink and the hiccups subside and the earlier feelings are completely gone. Jen exclaims, "I needed that…" James then replaces the cap and puts it back in his pocket. When the door opens, a cold breeze flies through; the last thing he sees is a small black and teal blur heading straight for one of his pockets. Casey looks at James and asks, "Uh… where did she go?" He looks at his jacket and replies, "It was the cold breeze and she made a beeline for a pocket on my jacket from the looks of it." Casey nods and jumps on him and says, "Let's go in." and James feels each pocket until he locates Jen and, satisfied, walks through the door. What he finds is something eerily familiar, but can't exactly place.

When he walks in the place is crawling with scientists and physicists. Someone then approaches him and asks, "What are you here for?" James introduces himself and explains who the snake is, and Casey just smiles at the woman and it makes her somewhat uncomfortable, seeing a smiling snake. "You get used to it pretty quickly; trust me… I made that same reaction when I first saw him smiling." She then asks him, "So, you want to see the suit we're currently working on in the back? Which, I believe is for a lieutenant; if I'm not mistaken… although the way we're making it gives me the feeling like something's not quite right." James nods in agreement and opens the pocket Jen had sped into to get out of the freezing air. "Jen, you want to show them what you're capable of now or do you want to warm up for a bit where you are?" She then tries to warm up and gathers what energy she can and flies right out of the pocket that had served as a furnace for her. "Okay, so who are you? The name's Jen, by the way." she asks the woman in the labcoat. The biologist just stares at her for a bit, not quite believing what she's seeing. "You can fly?!" Jen nods and says, "I think we'd established that one a long time ago… besides I can do a bit more than fly." The woman states "Show me what you can do."

Jen creates a sphere of light and lets it sit there so she can watch the sun in her palm pulse like heartbeat. It takes her a second to regain her composure and ask, "How long have you been able to do that?" Jen looks at Casey and asks, "_How long has it been since you two found me?_" Casey replies, "_About four days, I would think._" Jen replies to her, "Four or five days… give or take." The scientist then comments, "How did you become the size you are? I'm still trying to understand _that_." Jen replies, "If I remember correctly I think it was a reactor explosion that made me what I am, and it robbed me of my memory of who I was. I can't remember anything before seeing Casey look at me that first time, so you'll have to ask James about the details. I only remember shooting someone, a bright flash of light and then… I see a big-ass snake looking at me like I'm lunch or something." It finally hits this lady that the so-called pixie _is _the missing lieutenant Jenifer. "So you're the lieutenant we're making the suit for then… that would explain why we had to scale the suit down so much… it was because of your size." After Jen's demonstration, she says, "Oh, sorry for not introducing myself. My name is Susan Hendrix, professor in biology." Jen then asks her, "I was just wondering if you could measure my height… I just want to make sure the Exo-suit is scaled right, or is it not possible?" The professor then answers, "That's what we've been needing this whole time, but up until now we were working on a seven foot tall suit of armor for you… as requested, but I forgot what the color scheme was supposed to be so we've not painted it at all… at least until we know for sure what the scheme was." Casey then points to Jen's body armor to indicate the color scheme is to match the body armor. James is the one that voices it, "What Casey is trying to say is it's supposed to be colored black as the primary, teal as secondary, and silver as the details, along with red highlights." Prof. Hendrix nods and writes it down in a notebook. "Okay, so it's: Primary: Black, Secondary: Teal, and Details are in silver, along with red highlights... is that right?" Casey nods to her. "Alright then, we'll do the paint job last when we take it apart to copy the components and then we'll send for you and your lieutenant can test it out here just so no one jacks it… you understand?" Jen nods approvingly and says, "Yeah; makes sense… I guess it'll be the second time I've piloted one then."

Once they get to measuring Jen's height, it's just what Prof. Hendrix had guessed, Jen was twenty percent shy of four. "Wow, I thought you'd be five inches…" James then registers the look on Jen's face and adds, "…well I was close… wasn't I?" as he looks at Hendrix and then at Casey. Casey asks, "_Jen is that what you were guessing, or was it a bit smaller?_" Jen replies, "I figured I was about four inches, so yeah… I was really close yet no damned cigar." James, a bit distractedly, asks the professor, "So is it she scales with it pretty well or do you have to scrap the suit and start over? If you have to scrap it I would suggest using the Exo-suit scaling. Like a normal size Exo-suit and person and using that as the converter on her suit… if that makes any sense at all."

Prof. Hendrix answers, "That will be kept in mind, though in this case, it won't be necessary to redo it over. Jen seems to scale with the suit quite well; we just need to take the stupid thing apart to do the paint… unless you've got an idea that we've not thought of?" James answers, "Just keep this one as a reference, and copy it, but add the paint as you finish the chassis, make sense?" The professor nods, writing down what he said. She then offers her hand and says, "Well, we'll send for you when we finish it." James takes it in a handshake and replies, "Okay then, it's a deal… just make sure it's some time at night, I don't want to draw too much attention to this." The professor nods in agreement.

Out of the blue, they can faintly hear someone singing. When they turn to find who the culprit is, they find Jen doing loops singing the same few lines over every few minutes, "A heart that beats… an incredible machine that's made of blood, love, hope, lust and steam. And I'm floating as the soul and gravity fight. A heart that beats; it's an incredible machine… made of blood, love, hope, lust and steam." Casey then starts playing that very song and says to Jen, "_If you don't know it's called 'Incredible Machine' by Sugarland… I really like it; it's a bit of both instrumental and vocals._" When she sees their expressions, Jen tries to explain, "It was the only thing that came to mind and… on impulse, I start singing and then I'm flying in loops… I don't quite understand it yet."

Hendrix then snaps her fingers, realizing something, and asks Jen, "I almost forgot… do you mind if I take down your weight? It's just to see how the suit will respond to pressure points… if you're lighter than what's calibrated then the system will need to be reset and calibrated to your weight… know what I mean?" Jen thinks it over briefly and answers, "Sure… why not? I might even end up being the world's biggest loser in weight loss…" James chuckles at this, a slim smile on his face. Casey just tries not outright laugh at it. The professor just smiles and shows her to the weight scale and Jen jumps on it and waits a bit while Prof. Hendrix sets the weights to Jen's balance. "Okay, your weight is about thirteen grams. I don't find that surprising at all… not at all." Jen smiles to herself.

James then asks, "So, is that all? I just remembered we have to put Jen through her paces before next Saturday." The professor looks at him questioningly and asks, "What's the rush?" James replies, "That's when we have to hit a base the Caste had attacked not too long ago… it was the same day we raided that damned reactor complex… _but_ at least we got something out of it." He looks at Jen as he finishes his sentence and smiles at her. Jen smiles back and unconsciously creates a sphere of light and almost immediately passes out and slips… only to land in an open palm for the fifth or sixth time. James slips her into the tube and puts it in his pocket and explains, "She can control that energy like you just saw, but it comes at a bit of a price… she passes out for a bit, and comes to about two to three hours later, so it's not that big of a deal." Hendrix nods, understanding this, and says, "Well, I'll see what I can do about that… it may be she's just using her own energy and not the energy around her. I'll put it in the suits programming if she ever passes out it will automatically reenergize her and she'll wake up a bit energized, but it's just a theory."

James nods and offers his hand and thanks her for their time and with Casey on his shoulders and Jen safely in the cryo-tube in his pocket, leaves. It takes a bit of time to get back to the barracks, so, to pass the time James asks Casey to play a few songs… which he does and the time then really starts to fly as fast as Jen when she really goes for it. After a bit of time James starts to doze because of being fatigued for as he's been awake. Casey then puts his tail on the handle bar and steadies it for him while James tries to freeze himself awake… and it works for the most part. "Crap, I really need some sleep… Casey, if I don't get up, you have my permission to do what you see fit… even if you head-butt me in my head if you wake up before either of us. That way I can make a small breakfast for Jen and set the bath for her and you toss her suit in with mine." He then agrees and says he'll do it.

When they get back James hands the tube over to Casey and he puts beside where he'll sleep, meanwhile James takes a quick shower and after a small snack gets in bed and turns out the lights ready to face another hell of a day. Casey just watches him for a second and then curls into a small mound beside Jen's sleeping form, slightly faded due to the frost on the inside of the plastic window, making it seem more like a portrait of a long-dead friend than someone real.

Jen, meanwhile, is having one of her faded memory dreams. The way it started was she'd seen James take a shot to the chest trying to catch her because she had slipped and fallen. This was the second trigger for one of the bloodiest massacres ever to take place on the face of Initiative, a relatively large, war-torn planet on the edge of the Milky Way. Her darker side seems to emerge simply out of sheer sadness at the loss of a good friend and anger at herself being so damned careless. What happens is her hair turns a shade of white, almost silver, and her eyes, a shade of blood red… thus showing the anger and hatred in her heart at the loss of her last best friend… she lets it all go and screams, "Get the hell out of here if you want to live; if you're a confident, arrogant fool stay and die!" She then does a machinegun fire attack using her spheres on the approaching forces, and hits her targets… every single one of them, and then, all she sees is a battlefield littered with dead bodies and the low moans of the wounded or dying.

All of a sudden she wakes up in a cold sweat; pops the door open and tries to get her bearings and to remember what had just happened. Jen tries to steady herself on the tube and catch her breath. "Okay, _that_ was a _fucking_ nightmare!" she mutters under her breath as she tries to slow her blazing heartbeat. When she looks around though, she sees Casey asleep beside the tube; and James in his bed, also fast asleep. She decides to fly up to James' bedside stand and try to sleep there… but she's still a bit shaken from the horrific nightmare her subconscious had so tortured her with. "Okay, so it was just a damned nightmare… nothing more. I'm going to fly up there and try to sleep." She takes a few deep breaths to steady her mind and slow her thoughts, so as to calm her mind. After a bit of time, though, she's succeeded in flying up and taking a short nap there until James wakes up and spots her shaking form on the drawer. He then carefully covers her with a cleaned blue, thick washcloth. She then slows down and for a minute looks as peaceful as a baby.

James then reminds himself that he needs to get his and Jen's breakfast right about now… and so he starts for the door and then spots Casey waking up and whispers, "She's on the stand beside the bed, Casey. She must've had a hell of a nightmare." Casey then checks the small vanity and sure enough, she's sleeping under a cloth. Casey just moves onto the bed and waits for her to wake up. James, already out the door, is walking over to the cafeteria building. When Jen finally wakes up Casey asks her, "_Jen, James told me you ended up here because of a nightmare? I want to know what it was this time._"

Jen tries to calm down for a second and starts to explain what had happened in it. "Well, I find myself watching everything and then James catches me, but he says, 'Good-bye, Jen.' as he takes a bullet to his chest. The next thing I know I'm watching myself transform into a devil-eyed angel and screaming for everyone to leave and those who are morons to stay and be slaughtered… the last thing I see is a field of dead bodies, and then I wake up in a cold sweat and get out of the tube." Casey then puts his tail up against the small vanity and Jen wraps her arms around his tail and he lowers her to where he is on the bed. He then wraps around her in a donut and Jen reclines, thinking about what she used to be like before the explosion that took her memory. For a rare moment they just rest, thinking about what their childhood was like; how simple things were back then. Out of the blue Casey asks her, "_Do you want to hear the story of the girl I bit while you were in grade-school?_" Jen, her curiosity piqued, answers him, "Okay, you've got my attention." and so Casey basically said what he told everyone that night in the boardroom… minus the "I'm only going to say this once" part, of course. Jen can't help but smile at this, and it makes Casey feel a lot better about that semi-tragic day back in what used to be known as "Hell's school" or, as it was more appropriately known: High school.

Finally, James comes back with breakfast and drinks for himself and Jen. "Well, this is new. I've never seen you two so relaxed in… God knows how long." Jen and Casey nod in agreement, not quite seeing what James had brought. He then asks, "Either two of you hungry right now?" Jen's stomach starts to gurgle a bit, as if to say yes and James puts Jen's meal on the vanity and by now she's calmed down enough to be able to fly without too much trouble. James then pulls out a kabob of rodents which were cooked to perfection according to the look Casey gave it. "…and this one is yours, Casey." James states as he hands him the kabob of multiple types of roasted rodent meat. Casey takes it in his tail and eats it like a Popsicle.

Jen, as always, eats everything on the plate within a shocking amount of time… with her punishment being she gets the hiccups. James looks at her like she's going to blow at any second, yet she seems so relaxed it almost looks normal for her. "_I guess it's just a part of who she is now…_" James thinks to himself as he finishes his meal. Casey asks Jen, "_Think it's time you started on your training? You've got an amazing ability and there's not one damned reason to waste it… not to mention you've been working on not passing out as often when you use your spheres._" Jen nods and looks at James, who's just finished off the last of his waffle. He then lets Casey wrap on his torso and Jen flies beside him, careful not to use up too much of her energy and make her feel so fatigued.

Once they're outside though, a smoking Raptor lands in the middle of the base, and immediately blows up on impact. "Well, isn't this just _fucking _great?!" James mutters under his breath as he tries to make for the fire blanket. Jen's the first one to it and tries to pull it up… and it goes with her and James and Casey are just lost beyond words at the sight in front of them as Jen takes hold of a corner and pulls it over the burning wreckage of the jet. "Well, I could use some help here if you two are done staring at me." Casey gets his bearings straight and shoots for the base of the scrapped jet and digs a trench around it. James doesn't register the episode until a minute later and he finally says to himself, "Okay, next time don't just stand there and watch… do something!" Jen tries to cover the jet completely while Casey fills the trench back up with the tarp partway buried, as to hold the fire in and suffocate it.

James then gets to helping Casey as he buries the tarp over the jet and after a while it seems to have cooled a bit, but not by much. "Man, I hate this…" Jen mutters to herself as she throws cold water on the blanket. James seems to be thinking the same thing, or so the look on his face says. After the fire is out and the scrap is cooled down by Jen dropping cold water on it by the gallon she says, "Okay, that was not what I was hoping for today… but then again that's just life being a bitch." James nods and asks her, "How are you able to do what you can at your size?" Jen kind of looks at him quizzically and answers, "It doesn't feel abnormal to me, but then again I'm just as surprised as you. The one thing I can say is I don't know what I'm really capable of… but once I figure that out it should be easy solving problems. I'm learning what I can do as fast as you guys are, so we're kind of on the same page."

She then touches the tarp to feel the heat but, surprisingly enough, it's cool to the touch. James feels it and comments, "Well, you want to give it five minutes and then see if the metal is just as cool, or pull this off and see what we can salvage since we can say the pilot is already dead?" Casey answers, "I say give it five minutes and then pull it off and salvage it." Jen answers, "I'm not sure about it, but I've got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach… how do you do a 'Do what I do' hand signal?" James points to her then at himself and puts his hands up in sync and moves them up and down a few times, and for a second James just looks at her and asks, "What kind of feeling is it… like something bad is coming?" The answer doesn't come from Jen, but from another screeching aircraft… and it crashes into the barracks where they had just eaten their meals. "Okay, I can take one crash, but… this is the last straw." Jen screams into the air and scans for more aircraft or just anything that suggests Caste at all.

On impulse she forms a sphere and waits it out until another plane, a T-class aircraft comes in on a crash vector. She follows it and lands on the pilot's view window and the man in the seat spots her but doesn't do anything but stare. She then guesses he'll follow her so she jumps off and heads for the runway and, as expected, he follows her. Jen then tries to signal to him to stop mid-air and land using her body, and for a second he doesn't quite understand, but almost immediately stops and hovers. Jen points to him and then to herself and does the "Do what I do" hand signal. The young man instantly recognizes it and nods with a thumbs up sign and Jen then slowly lowers to the ground with him doing the same. "Okay, so he's out and okay, so I'll leave him and see what else the sky lets loose."

All of a sudden she spots a squadron of what appear to be sixty aircraft and a few ground vehicles, and mutters under her breath, "Okay, then push my buttons and see what you'll get… and trust me, you won't like it!" Jen flies up to intercept them and see about their IFFs and, to spite her, she gets fired on by the first few Spades that spot her. "Okay, now I'm mad!" and, just like she had seen before, her eyes go red and her hair turns silver and she screams, "Okay, you want to live: you had better turn back now… You have thirty seconds!" Only a few turn back… and the rest… she lets them have it. She mutters, "Gatling Barrage…" and forms a sphere in each hand, brings them together in front of her stomach, forms one larger sphere and then… all hell breaks loose.

James, meanwhile, is still watching the spectacle up in the sky as almost every single Spade is obliterated… save the few that turned tail and ran, who hadn't been touched. "I honestly hope she doesn't pass out up there, but… if she does she'll hit the ground!" and with that he basically grabs Casey by his middle and runs for it to intercept Jen's possible fall… but she spots them and heads straight for them. She's silent as she lands softly in James' hand and then she passes out and her hair turns back to black. James looks at Casey, "Am I seeing things or did I just see her eyes red and her hair turn from silver to black and she passes out on me?" Casey just nods as he tries to think through what he just saw; after a bit of thinking he answers, "You were right… she's a hell of a lot worse now… added to the fact she somehow got really pissed off when she saw that transport crash… the only thing that would make sense is what she told me earlier before you came in the room. She explained it as if she was watching herself do the deed… and she had been almost correct in proving her theory, save for seeing you die and the field of the dead and dying." James looks at him as he slips Jen into the tube and asks, "What happens to me? Does something happen to me to cause her to do what she did?" Casey takes in a breath and continues, "She made a mistake and it cost you your life as you had seen her slip and fall. You took a shot to the chest as you catch her, and your dying words are 'Good-bye, my friend' and seeing as how she had just lost everything that was as close to a family she'd ever had, turns into that."

Casey points to her as he explains how James had died in Jen's dream. James just stands there thinking it over and finally says, "Remember I said how we're all screwed when she created that sphere? I still say that's true and if the Spade invasion wasn't a very good example, give me one that is…" Casey nods, now understanding what James had meant that first day when Jen had created her first energy sphere. He then says, "Well, did you have that on record? I really don't want to raise any alarms; I just want to get this to the Board as soon as possible, sound alright?" James nods and removes his Visor, shuts it off and puts it with Jen's cryo-tube in his pocket; and with Casey on his shoulders and around his torso, heads for his Minesweeper. "Okay, so we just let the Board will use my Visor for the time being and show them the recording and Jen's transformation?" James asks just to clear things up in his mind, and Casey nods. When they get there James dismounts and heads for the general's quarters and is about to knock on the door when it's suddenly opened by a commanding officer and ushered in. The man at the desk then looks up from a report and asks, "You're Corp. James Macintyre, correct?"

James answers yes and the commander continues, "Do you have anything to report on how an entire squadron of Caste Spades was just wiped off the face of Initiative?" James then puts his Visor on the desk and says, "All of what I saw is on that. I'd take a look at the last twenty seconds of the video… you'll understand when you do; trust me." The man looks at him a bit quizzically and then pulls out an adapter. "Does your Visor have an encryption code?" James nods and puts it in as soon as the screen pops up and then the recording starts to play, starting with the burning jet and ending with Jen landing in Jams' hand and passing out on the spot. "You see what I mean?" James asks as he zooms in on Jen right before she passes out, only to show a girl with silver hair and red eyes. The officer's eyes go huge with shock as he can't quite understand what he's seeing. James then pulls out the tube and sets it on the desk. Casey then unwraps and sits there encircling it. "He doesn't like seeing his friend in a precarious position…" James explains to the officer. The man nods understandingly and asks, "Did you see her change in the sky?" James shakes his head and answers, "All I heard was a faint 'Now I'm mad!' coming from where I recorded the increase in return fire… then it was raining scrap iron and circuit boards; next I see her flying toward us and she lands on my hand, smiles, and passes out right there on me before I could ask her what she had just done."

Casey then looks at the tube at his center and spots Jen coming to and decides to thaw her out. He starts playing a song that seems to roughly fit the moment and she, for some reason starts to air-drum to the drum beat about a minute, ten seconds into it and Casey tells her it's called 'Ending/Roll Call/Duty Bound/Price Paid' and she comments that she'll just call it Price Paid. James looks at a bit quizzically and gets right to the point, asking in a curious tone, "What happened to you up there?" It takes her a second to figure out what he means and she finally answers, "I got really pissed… and I just… told them to leave if they didn't want to die. A few did leave, but the ones that didn't were killed by my slightly darker side… that's the best way I can put it." James looks at her, a thoughtful look in his eye, and comments, "The last thing you did was find us, and when you landed in my grasp you passed out before I had any chance to ask you what exactly you did." Jen nods and looks at Casey with a questioning look in her eyes. Casey then stops messing with the phone he had found earlier and states, "It wasn't exactly Jen I was in contact with when she screamed 'Okay, now I'm mad!' This other side seemed more protective of us… me and James, I mean. It seemed to match what she had told me when James told me she was on the vanity when I woke up and tried to find her."

The commander then asks, "If you don't mind my asking, what happened in this nightmare?" Jen then flies up and hovers there for a second and starts, "I'll tell you if you can keep a secret… I trust Casey and James because they're the closest thing to a family I've got, save my parents…" The man looks her in the eye and says, "If it's that important to you I won't write anything down on it. All I'll put down is you were being debriefed, nothing more… you have my word, lieutenant." Jen nods, almost inperceptively, and starts, "The first thing I see is James lunging for me as I'm falling to my apparent death. At the same time he gets a shot to the chest and he mutters to me, 'Good-bye, old friend' and I just stare at him for a second before I completely lose it and then… I see myself from the outside looking in. What I see is a small figure with black hair and blue eyes, next thing I see… her hair turns silver and the eyes an almost blood-red color." The man looks at her with interest and says, "Keep going, what happens next?" Jen continues and says, "I hear myself say if you want to live you can run now and not be touched or, like an arrogant fool, stay and die. The next thing that happens is…" Jen begins to get watery eyes and tells Casey to continue her story and he finishes with, "This other half basically kills everyone on the field and all she sees are the wounded, dying, and already dead." The officer then takes a minute to let it soak in and he asks Casey, "Do you think we could talk to this other half of her?" Casey looks at Jen and then at James and back at the commander, "I'm actually not sure… it would stand to reason that her more 'volatile' side comes to the rescue out of a need rather than desire." Out of the blue, Jen says, "Alex… that's her name. She came out of nowhere and basically destroyed the whole squadron."

James then looks at her with a "What did you just say?!" look that clearly said he knew something they didn't. Casey is the first to voice what Jen, he, and the commander are wondering, "Okay, so what is it about Alex that makes you so disbelieving?" James then realizes everyone is staring at him and he immediately says, "I really don't want to say it…" he takes a deep breath and continues, "…but if you insist, I'll talk." Jen asks him, "Okay, so who is Alex?" James starts, "It was during that mission we were assigned to a few years back when we had just graduated and were assigned to different battalions… back when you were normal height… make sense?" Jen nods and he continues, "Well, were split into teams and you were another squad assigned to a different mission at the time. If I remember right we were in the middle of a firefight and I had The one thing I never could get out of my head was the last thing she said to me before she lost it and disappeared on me; she said, 'When you see a shower of light and scrap is when I'll return' and I gave her a last kiss and she passed away…"

Jen stares at him for a second thinking about the dream she had woken up in a cold sweat from and asks him, "So, that's it then… if I've got it straight Alex must've taken ahold of me when I was unconscious during your trip back to the base… and it would also explain the dream I woke up in a cold sweat from. You know what I'm talking about?" James nods and says softly, "That's how she died." Jen just stands there in stunned silence for a second and says, "Did she have blonde hair?" James nods and she says, "Well, that explains my hair turning silver." James then snaps his fingers and says, "Did you scream 'Now I'm mad' and then you blacked out while you were up there engaging those Spades?" Jen answers him, "If that's what those damn things are called then yes… and then all I see is a shower of light and scrap."

Casey then states, "That would explain her smile before she passed out on you, James. Maybe her promise has finally been fulfilled; have you thought of that?" James nods and says, "I'd always had that in the back of my mind for the last few years hoping it would be true, and looks like it turned out that way." In a kidding tone, Jen remarks, "Well, I guess that means I'm sharing a body with a close friend of yours then, James…" and she looks at his face and says, "… wait… that can't be right! There's no way that… damn." Casey gets the feeling that says, "Okay, Alex would have be James' sister" and he voices it and this time they see a single tear go down his cheek as he nods.

"No wonder… I don't blame you for keeping it suppressed. I really don't blame you. I mean how could you explain something you can't quite believe?" James looks her in the eye and says, "Comatose, are you really here? Or am I having a bad dream like Jen did?" All of a sudden Jen's hair turns silver and her eyes turn an Autobot red and Alex appears and says, "Nice to see you little bro, you managed to survive the damned slaughter I didn't so things should be going well? Well, except the part about me blowing those bastards out of the sky… like I promised you." James just stands there and stares at his once-deceased older sister now reduced to almost four inches in height. "I never thought it would be this long, Alex… I thought you had gone over and never looked back." Alex stares at him and says, "I told you I would be back in a shower of sparks and scrap… I smiled at you before I passed out... remember?"

James reminisces on that memory all those years ago. The mercury red sky, the look in Alex's eye as she said her dying words; and the negativity that filled him with rage and sadness… then came the screaming, the blood, the flying guts, intestines, and God knows what else. It wasn't until her voice snapped him back that he realized what he doing. He looks at her and forces a smile. In response she smiles the same way she did before she passed out on him. "You have that same look you had the last time I saw your face… you know that, right?" Alex inquires. "I guess it's just been so damned long I've kind of gotten used to it the way things are… you wouldn't believe the time I had just getting here, and Jen was the same as always… until the reactor when and robbed her memory from her." came the response.

Alex just stands there and finally looks at Casey for the first time and comments, "I think I've seen you before, but I just can't quite place you… something about a girl getting attacked in the girls' restroom and leaving for the rest of the year, I believe?" Casey nods and answers, "She ripped Jen's shirt and she came running home and into the room crying so hard she couldn't say anything. I just tell her to use our connection and after she explained what happened I decided to go with her in her backpack and get the girl. You can imagine what happens next." Alex just smiles and says, "That was really cruel in a way, but it makes sense… you took it as an insult and retaliated, nothing more." Casey nods, and after a second looks at the commander, who's just standing there behind the desk.

Alex then comments, "Initiative… is that where I am, James?" She looks at him, only to see a tear streaked face and a look of sheer joy… or sorrow, she couldn't quite figure out which one and smiles at him slightly and says, "I'm here to stay whether anyone likes it or not… you can be sure of that, little brother!" James then wipes his face clean and says, though, slightly choked up, "Yes… we lost Earth two years ago to a fucking jackass who detonated the core and now she's nothing more than a memory!" He continues with, "If you understand this… I can't explain what this pain in my mind has done to me… the only reason I've not given up is because Jen has done a great job of filling in that void you left the second I kissed you. All I've had in me is the fucking delirium these last few years… if you know what I mean?" Alex nods understandingly then looks at one of his arms, noticing what looks like a cut, but, strangely, wasn't bleeding and, knowingly, asks, "You never got that polymer replaced did you?" James nods slightly, just noticing what she was getting at. "You spotted the glinting silver, didn't you?" He asks her, a bit irritably, wishing he had covered it earlier.

Alex slowly nods… and before she can say anything the commander cuts in and asks, "It was you? You did it? You're the girl that single-handedly destroyed an entire squadron of Spades of the face of Initiative?" Alex recognizes the voice then looks at the poor excuse for a ranking officer and answers coldly, "Yes, but more importantly, don't you remember the name 'Alexis Coma Macintyre'… listed as a Lt. Major at the time of the May 14, 2181 battle? That was the biggest loss ever since the reactor complex blew up, screwed Jen over and made her what she is… at least she didn't suffer my fate… You reported the Lt. Major as MIA, because you didn't want to ruin your reputation!" The commander then makes a grab for her, but misses due to her flight ability. Alex then creates two orbs and says, "It was because of you we lost Earth…" She then adds, muttering, "…you sick bastard!" Casey and James, meanwhile, are staring at her; a bit dumbstruck wondering what got her so wound up and downright pissed. "_It's a long story, Casey… I'll tell you all about it later when we have some time, but for now, just try to keep me down before I kill this sorry excuse for a human being… Please!_" James sees the look in her eye and immediately grabs her and doesn't exactly squeeze her, but just, holds on tight enough she can't move her arms and says, a bit coldly, "Don't you dare. I know you want his head on a silver platter right now, Alex but you can't kill him right now… it isn't the right time. What exactly happened to Erde-Tyrene, anyway? If you tell me that, then I'll let you go."

Alex then gives him an evil eye and says, "You don't have a fucking clue, do you… what happened two days after you were recalled to the Infidel?!" James thinks back to that time and vaguely recalls something about a planet being detonated but not paying too much mind to it… and then it clicks, "Erde-Tyrene was the planet they detonated?!" This time Alex is the one to shed a tear as she slowly nods. After he gets his emotions in check he looks for the commander… only to find him with his head on the desk and what looks like a snake-bite on his left shoulder, "Well, that solves that problem, I would think… don't you?" He looks down to see her struggling to get a breath and he immediately lets off and she sits up and takes in a few deep breaths.

Casey, after silently watching the episode, asks her, "_It would make sense that you can do everything Jen can do since you're essentially a second personality of her… right, Comatose?_" Alex then looks at him and answers yes and proceeds to explain that this will be the one of the few times that she's in control and that Jen is the primary consciousness in command since Alex was the second to manifest in this body. James then asks, "So, in short, you're Jen's slightly more evil side?" Alex explains to him, "It's something like that. I'll only come forth when she's at her peak of anger or just any emotion… like if she's extremely agitated then I'll come forth and drop the bomb… I mean, for all intents and purposes, I should be dead right now, but I made a promise and now here I am. I just fill in what her personality doesn't… like if it's not in her nature to kill someone, but it's needed, I'll come forth and kill the person… know what I mean?" Thinking on it, James asks, "Like earlier today, you mean?" Alex nods and adds "Do you remember Jen woke up in a cold sweat and you woke up to find her shaking on the stand a few days ago?" James nods, thinking back to that morning, and Casey, intrigued, prods her on, "_Keep going…_" and she responds, "I wasn't wanting to give her a heart attack, but that's what apparently happened… I was just wanting to show her how I died… you know? Plus, I wanted to show her what would happen when she got really pissed… and that I would make myself known and do what she couldn't without scarring herself."

James then looks at her for what feels like the longest time and she looks at him and says, "You know I don't like being stared at, right?! You've never forgotten that, have you?" It takes James a second to realize he's staring at her and he shakes his head and mutters, "I guess you two have something in common then." Alex then jumps into the air as she creates two sparkers to light the almost pitch black hallway and without so much as an utterance of surprise passes out but not before a metallic hand reaches out and halts the young girl's lethal descent, and a voice in the dark mutters, "Yup, there she goes again passing out on us."

James then slips the changing form into the cryo-tube and mutters, "I could probably get used to this if I can just spot when she's about to pass out." Casey gives him his tail to hold as he's the one with the night vision, or his natural vision. It takes a good while to find the Minesweeper and head for the Cans. Once they get into their room James sets the tube by Casey's bed, takes a quick shower and then gets in bed, a smile on his sleeping face. Casey then looks at him and smiles too, happy he finally got to see his old friend again, and curls up and goes to sleep.

Meanwhile, as James and Casey are asleep, Jen is starting to have pretty much the same dreams over and over again. This time it's a bit different… She's in a large room with group of people and only one person is looking at her… little does she know that this is Alex. The young blonde then approaches her and introduces herself as Alex Coma Macintyre, and Jen, upon recognizing the name, asks, "Then I'll bet you know James, then, I would assume?" The girl nods and answers, "He's my younger brother." Jen then takes in a sharp breath upon hearing this. "Is that how you died, then? It was a bullet to the chest?" Alex nods and says, "I made a promise to him that I would be back in a shower of steel and light… and now here I am… a second personality of yours… Jenifer." Jen then takes a small step back and asks, "How do you know my name?" Alex just smiles and then without warning Jen finds herself in the same dream again… Only this time she's seeing it from James' point of view and she can nothing but watch as a girl about his height dive in front of him and she dies in front of her as she hears Alex's dying breath say, "I'll be back in a shower of steel and sparks… you'll see me…" Then her view suddenly changes as she's now on a ship seeing a planet that looks torturously familiar, yet she can't place it in her memory, get blown to nothing more than a ring of rock ice and gas. She then hears herself say, "Erde-Tyrene is no more…"

All of a sudden she wakes up and she finds herself gripping Casey for dear life as if she had been stripped of her defensive abilities. She then looks up to see a snake's head about her size looking at her in a quizzical fashion and she realizes she unconsciously opened the tube, found him and just slept there, holding on to him like a small child would to a caring guardian. Casey then connects the dots and asks, "_It was Alex… wasn't it?_" Jen nods and says, "Is it true? She must've told you and James because I don't remember a damned thing besides getting a strange feeling and then blacking out." Casey nods, his guess being proven true, and states, "I heard you say 'Erde-Tyrene is no more…' and then you almost cut through my skin as you gripped me." Jen then, almost apologetically, "Sorry I didn't know I was on you until I woke up after I saw a planet get blown up." Casey thinks back a bit when Alex was explaining what had happened to Earth and then it clicks, "_Jen, that was Earth you saw get blown into an asteroid belt… Erde-Tyrene and Earth are the same._" Jen then gets something in the back of her mind that keeps repeating like the drum beat in a song. "_Casey72…_" She then asks him what it means and Casey, realizing it's the code to her Moto, pulls it out from under the blanket and sets it up against the rim of his bed and turns it on and says, "_Enter it in and you'll see what it is._"

Jen then sees a number pad and enters the pass exactly as she knows it: 2273972, and it unlocks to show background picture of a tall brunette with blue eyes, and a diamond back python wrapped around her torso. "_That's me and you, isn't it, Casey_?" It takes him a second to respond, as he can't help but smile slightly at that memory. "_Yes, that's you and me before you were drafted… believe it or not._" Jen looks at him and asks him, "_How old was I when I was drafted_?" Casey then decides to tell her the whole story, starting with how they were stuck together at birth and what had happened to her parents -what he could remember that is- and then he gets to the part about the picture and says, "Now that's an interesting story concerning that picture…" Jen then gets a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach and says, "I'm not sure why, but I've got a strange, almost hungry feeling in my gut." Casey then explains that the feeling she's currently experiencing is the exact same one she got when she'd go through her episodes of massacres. Jen thinks this over and asks, "It wasn't my fault was it?" Casey shakes his head and explains, "_It's something instinctual, something that can't be exactly controlled. I've seen firsthand what happens when you go ape-shit and start to kill everything if it's still standing. The protocol that the military had developed for everyone's safety was you would yell 'Get down!' and everyone would hit the ground and basically play dead, and then you would kill anyone still standing._"

Jen looks at him and sits down to try and understand this new piece of herself as a human with extraordinary abilities. Casey then picks her up with his tail and sets her in his center and basically gives her a hug and she wraps her arms around him and a single tear slips down her face as she thinks of all the innocent people she could've killed without even being able to stop it. For a moment they just sit there… Casey silently comforting his adopted "twin" as some would call them –even when they weren't looking people would still call them twins, not because they were completely different species, but because it was rare anyone saw one without the other. Jen then tries to occupy her mind by drumming lightly on Casey; mimicking one of her favorite songs, even though the rhythm is quite out of her memory's reach. "_Transformers by Mutemath… that's what you're drumming._" She then starts to say the lyrics and he plays the song as she sings along with it… before too long the twins are doing a "Dance of the Mech" as they later call it. Jen is hovering inside Casey as he does a sideways rope move and she does the light show -little do these two know what's up ahead. Given what they were doing, the song wakes James up and he's trying to find out where the sound is coming from and he finds them doing their Dance of the Mech. He shakes his head as he sighs and comments, "Now I've seen everything. You two are full of surprises… you do know that, right?" He looks at them and they just smile at him and then out of the blue Jen asks him, "Is Erde-Tyrene what you call Earth, James?" This takes James by surprise and he nods as he asks, "I guess Alex already showed you what had happened to her and what that sick son of a bitch did to our cradle?" Jen nods slowly and looks at Casey and he says, "_I bit him on his shoulder and he went out like a light, so don't worry about him._" Jen smiles at him and attacks him in the tightest hug she could do. Casey then wraps around her and squeezes her back.

"Well, I'll go get us some breakfast and hopefully go see about that Mk. II Exo-suit. You two want to get started while I'm gone and see what a Butterfly can do?" Jen nods and looks at Casey, who nods and starts for the simulator, with Jen following him not too far behind, and James heads off to the cafeteria. Jen then asks Casey, "_Okay, so do you think we should start on my target practice first and no flight, or flight with no sparkers_?" Casey gives this some thought and answers, "_I think we'll start off with flight just so you can practice your landing technique… know what I mean_?" Jen nods and adds, "_Yeah, that would make sense; so that way I wouldn't pass out and end up asleep for the rest of the day… let's get to it!_" Casey then sets the simulator to a rocky terrain with very little vegetation and a few canyons and a number of high plateaus. "_Okay, so you ready to try for a helicopter landing first_?" Jen jumps to one of the lower cliffs and nods at him saying, "_Yeah, I'll try that since that's what's giving me so much trouble…_"

So begins a morning of flight training… specifically landing techniques like the chopper landing and the seven four seven landings. Before too long Jen's perfected her airplane landing and is almost got her chopper landing when James walks in. She spots him and smiles as she flies over to him and, without slipping, lands on the box in his hands. "Looks like you've been working on your landing technique for the most of the morning!" James comments as she lands on the box without a sound. "Thanks, I think I've worked up an appetite now… I feel like I could eat something as big as Casey." At this Casey says, "_Hey, I was the one who caught you almost ninety percent of the time_!" Jen then goes a little red in the face and James chuckles seeing the embarrassment on her face as she looks at Casey and smiles innocently at him.

James then sets their meals down on the table as he sits to his and Jen jumps to get to hers. James hands Casey three sticks full with rodents all the way to the end, minus the grip and the look Casey gives them as James sets them down on a plate for him and Casey instantly bites the head off the first rodent in his mouth as James watches him a second then looks at Jen only to find the little girl sitting there hiccupping like nobody's business to which he can't help but laugh as he comments, "I told you not to eat so quickly… see what happens when you eat too fast?" Jen then looks at him with an "I didn't do it!" look on her face and he responds, "Yeah, tell my grandma that. You ate so fast you started hiccupping and now look at you!" She then tries to fly at him but immediately hits the ground as she gets assaulted by another round of hiccups. James can't help but smile at her futile attempts to jump at him. "Okay, look. I'm sorry, but it's just funny that you don't seem to understand that when you eat too fast you get immediate Karma and get hiccups!"

Jen then looks at him, her hiccups subsiding finally, and she tries to talk through them, "It's… not my fault… that I can't… stop myself from… eating so damned… fast! It's almost instinctual… I can't exactly stop it." James, still uncontrollably laughing, tries to suppress it as he understands what she's saying. Casey, meanwhile, can't help but smile as he watches the episode play out between two old friends of his as he eats at his meal, which he's just finished two sticks of rodents. "_James is right Jen. You really do need to slow down a bit when you eat, otherwise you'll end up grounded._" Jen looks at him and says, "I guess you two are right, but like my Kamikaze mode, eating something is just another thing I can't control exactly. I can suppress it to an extent and then it slows down, but the end result is the same… I still end up grounded and can't get over half an inch off the ground." James then puts his cup down and looks at the ripples in the white liquid… something didn't quite feel right, and it was quite evident in them. The ripples kept getting bigger and more violent. "Jen, you need to drink something now or you'll be stuck in my pocket until your hiccups subside! Something isn't quite right…" Casey doesn't have any time to ask what as the building's north wall explodes into a pile of scrap iron and steel. James immediately covers Jen as she puts her hands up; Casey just sits there under James' chair until the fog clears for them and he immediately disappears. What they hear is just people's screams slowly going out as they drop off one by one… mainly due to Casey hitting them in the neck since if he bit them they would be incapacitated for a random period of time – a chance he didn't want to take.

Jen then gets a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach as she starts to hover and then is about twenty feet off the ground. "Okay, whoever pulled that stunt is going to get their ass handed to them on a silver platter; _that_ I can almost guarantee!" she yells to everyone still awake to hear her as she creates two sparkers and clears the fog even further to reveal a huge hole in the side of the barracks tent. She mutters to herself as she looks around, "Okay, where did you go… you bastard?!" She immediately spots someone in a yellow shirt and red pants running from where the bomb had just gone off and was twenty meters from it by this time… so Jen decides to follow them until they get to a good spot where they think they're safe. She then lands somewhere close but secluded enough she wouldn't be seen as she thinks, "_Casey, don't move until we've heard everything and then wait for my signal. It'll be a bit, so just be patient._"

The woman then opens up a small case and punches in a few numbers and says, "Sir, I've successfully armed and set off the bomb designed to kill your targets: James Macintyre and the snake he calls Casey, but I was unable to locate the one named Jenifer Garza." Jen draws in a small, sharp breath at hearing her name, but keeps still as the suspect continues, "I've found out, though, that she isn't much of a threat to us anymore… she's pushing up daisies now, I know for sure, but I still say we bomb this place just to be sure." On the other end of the line a voice says, -"Good, don't fail me… or the consequences will be far worse than last time! Understood, Heather?"- The young woman gets a nasty look on her face at that horrid memory, and nods, "Yes… I will not fail like with the last three targets…" and with that she closes the capsule and restores it back to her pocket, but just as she's about to leave she spots something in the pile -something a bit humanoid and yet so small.

Jen looks in her eyes, only to see emotion clouding their green luster. With a deep breath she readies herself for her "Phase 3" plan and walks out with a distraught look on her face. The young woman looks down and kneels as to get a better look at this new being with a look of curiosity on her set face. "Who are you?" Jen asks her, a bit nervously, as if seeing someone seventeen times her size for the first time. "My name's Henrietta, and yours?" Jen thinks to herself before answering, "Kelly, I don't know where I ended up after a huge explosion knocked me unconscious and then here I am… no more than a few inches tall and alone… like everything just got a bit bigger overnight. Damn, I hate it so much!"

"Well, I'll help you find your friends if you can remember what they look like, or did your memory disappear with the rest of your height?" Henrietta asks as she puts her hand on the ground for Jen to get on. Jen just stands there with a look of sheer terror in her blue eyes when she sees Henrietta's hand come close to her and Henrietta says, almost soothingly, "I wouldn't think of hurting you at all… you're the first small person I've ever seen." Jen nods, getting her courage back and jumps on and up she goes… faster than she could ever remember. "So, Kelly, do you have any friends my size or yours?" Jen looks at her and says softly, "I think yours…" Henrietta then thinks this over and decides it's worth a trip to the Board Room to report what she'd found as a result of the untimely bombing of the cafeteria earlier.

Jen thinks, "_Casey, can you go find James and meet us outside the Board Room, but don't get there before we do. I want to catch her off guard._" All she spies is a thin string of diamonds heading for the blown café as she and Henrietta are going to the Board. "Do you remember anything at all… anything that can tell you who you are?" The girl with green eyes asks Jen as she cradles the frightened girl in her hand. Jen responds, a bit uncertainly, "All I remember is hiccups and a huge explosion as the whole wall came down and I was blown all the way to where you found me, but other than that, I don't remember a blasted thing." Henrietta comments, "Hiccups, I thought you would have remembered something a bit more important, wouldn't you agree?" Jen nods as she answers, "I know… it sounds strange to me too, but that's all I remember." She then hears Casey's voice saying, "_We're right behind you two… I could bite her, but we'll wait until she's trapped, know what I mean_?" Jen replies, "_Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking. James can block the door to prevent her escape and then I'll surprise her with a flying light show and ask her what she's after._"

"_Jen, James has his BR on him… so if anything goes wrong he'll shoot her, using tranquilizer darts, and you'll jump and fly onto the table, sound like a backup plan_?" Jen replies, "_I don't want it to come down to that, but if it does… then yeah, it's a plan B. I know that for sure._" She then looks at Henrietta and says in an almost shocked voice, "They're almost on you! We need to get to the Board Room before they catch us or… or…" she never finishes the sentence for she had passed out from getting too little sunlight -but no one knows it… for now. Heather hugs her cargo all the tighter and sprints for the Board Room just in time to see just a few officers there, and someone looks at her and says in a surprised voice, "Did you kill her?!" upon seeing the unconscious form of Jen in her hand. Heather then puts one hand up in surrender and says, "I thought I was getting her to a safe room to get her help." Just then James comes up behind her and whispers in her ear, "She's just sleeping… it happens out of the blue randomly, you didn't kill her. So, just hand her over to me and you won't get shot… deal?" He puts his hand in front of her and Heather asks, "Who are you, asking for her in the first place?" James responds, "I'm her bodyguard. You want to get shot and then brutally interrogated, or hand her over and come clean?" Heather tries to understand the situation and thinks about what will happen if she came clean and asked for a little protection; in return she would give them everything she knew about the Caste that had tortured her so badly she desperate to be rid of it.

"Okay, but do you have something to protect her with?" James nods as he pulls out a medium length cryo-tube and pops it open. Heather then gently slips Jen's sleeping form in it and James puts it back in his pocket. "You sure she'll be alright, sir?" and James looks her dead in the eye and says, "I'll be dead before she suffers so much as a scar." Heather nods, taking a deep breath, satisfied. "Would you want me to explain who I am? If I can start with that, everything you want to know is going to come out of my mouth if you can protect me from that bastard of a rat, Luigi Montebello." James then looks at her, trying to find anything suggesting foul play, but all he could see was someone hurt so bad they had nothing to lose. "Okay, so you want to be kept away from this 'Luigi Montebello' in exchange for intelligence on what he's doing, am I following you correctly?" Heather nods, "If I can have that then I'm an open book to you." James nods, pulls up two chairs and they sit and he gets down to what happens when she didn't do an assignment properly. "It was… hell. That's the only way I can put it. At times I wished he would just kill me and be done with it, but he had the contrary in mind apparently." James nods understandingly, "Leave us to imagine that horror and tell me what you were to do on these assignments if you will, Heather." She then looks at him quizzically and says, "You look awfully familiar, but I can't place your face... do you know who Kevin Macintyre is?" James then stops and looks at her with his "How the hell is it you know that...?" look, "He was a Captain of the Requiem starship that orbited around Initiative… why?" Heather replies, "I can't be sure but I can recall one time when I saw a man with your looks and physique being sent to one of our ships' brigs, along with a bunch of other guys with him." James then says softly, "I'm his son, James." Without pausing, he asks, "Did you here anything about their last days... or what happened to any of them?!"

Heather looks down at her hands and says softly, "I can't remember exactly which ones were used as experiments… horrid ones, at that." James then looks at her and pulls the tube in his pocket out and says, "What did she say her name was?" Heather replies, "She told me her name was 'Kelly'… and she had been walking around for a while until I found her… is there something wrong?" James then chuckles slightly as he then proceeds to explain to the baffled young woman that "Kelly" is actually Jen posing as a shrunken defenseless person –to which Heather then looks at him a bit disbelievingly for a sec. It then settles down on her mind that she had been played like a violin. "Damn, that pixie's a smartass!" Heather mutters to herself as she figures this out. James then says, "You might want to refrain from calling her a pixie, because, as she put it she doesn't have the wings, but can fly up to an astounding height. If you don't want to get literally burned by her sparkers, you don't want to piss her off."

Heather then looks at the tube with a look of… what, she didn't exactly know, but it clicked and she says, almost too softly for them to hear, "If you had been any closer to that bomb, it would've ended all three of you right then and there." James then motions for Casey to come out of the hallway, as he's figured she knows he's there as well. Heather looks at the snake and says, "I do know you're Casey… there's no mistaking that blue diamond pattern." Casey, who just looks at the tube on James' knee, just nods. James looks at Casey and then at Heather and, with a tear in his eye, says, "We're getting him and his crew back as soon as Jen's suit is finished… no shit." Casey then looks at him and James proceeds to explain to him what Heather told him. Casey nods and taps the tube to see how far asleep Jen is.

James then looks at Heather and asks, "What else can you tell us about this Luigi guy?" Heather then proceeds to tell him _everything _she knows about what she's been involved in –including the failed attempt at killing them with the bomb, which she sincerely apologized for- and with Casey wrapped on his torso, Jen safely sleeping in her cryo-tube, he and Heather start a long talk as they head for the Tinfoil Weapons Research Facility (a.k.a. the "TOWER") to suit Jen up for a rescue mission. James wanted to get them back as bad as Jen gets when she's pissed. He thinks, "_Jen, you had better wake up soon, or I'll do it for you, because we have a situation on our hands._"

Jen, meanwhile, is talking to Alex, trying to understand how to control her newly found and nearly mastered abilities. "So, you now know the sad story of my futile death, and now I'll show you what happens when you're pushed beyond your limits…" Alex explains to Jen as she falls into a void of blackness and wakes up in the tube… safe and sound. "_I really hope I can get into that suit before too long… I really need it._" Jen thinks as she slowly drifts off to sleep for the second time that day. It takes her about a minute to fall asleep as a voice in her head is saying, "_Let it go… let it go… let it go… do you feel cold and lost in desperation_?" and with that she falls asleep, ready to learn something she'll need to understand and use to combat what comes her way…


End file.
